Natural Regeneration - Does it fit anything?

[DrWazzock]

After some serious thought I have decided I would be willing to allow 40 acres out of 180 to go to natural regeneration. Its all extremes of soil types and would buffer and straightnen the edges of watersourses very nicely leaving me with the easier working land in nice square blocks, amenable to easy farming.
I am willing to go over the land to be regenerated once only to establish a grass seed/ wild flower mix but I dont really want to revisit it after that as I'd see it as a waste of time and resouces.
Will this approach fit any of the Mid Tier options or do I have to build up a patchwork of different fiddly and messy things. I am also willing to leave over wintered stubbles and retain some low intensity grazing that we havent already ploughed up. Suspect I need a consultant but this is what I'd like to do rather than have to pick a load of options that have to be a certain width etc and need a lot of work, thereby not really benefiting me very much at all. Thanks.

 

[DrWazzock]

If nothing can be done easily I will just grass that land down as a herbal ley and mow it late for horse hay, and put Christmas trees on the heavy stuff. Might be simpler and still bring an income.

 

[teslacoils]

Mixed farming offer herbal lay - at least you can mow, graze and spread muck on it. Tbh for the money I ought have put the lot in.

 

[Bury the Trash]

After some serious thought I have decided I would be willing to allow 40 acres out of 180 to go to natural regeneration. Its all extremes of soil types and would buffer and straightnen the edges of watersourses very nicely leaving me with the easier working land in nice square blocks, amenable to easy farming.
I am willing to go over the land to be regenerated once only to establish a grass seed/ wild flower mix but I dont really want to revisit it after that as I'd see it as a waste of time and resouces.
Will this approach fit any of the Mid Tier options or do I have to build up a patchwork of different fiddly and messy things. I am also willing to leave over wintered stubbles and retain some low intensity grazing that we havent already ploughed up. Suspect I need a consultant but this is what I'd like to do rather than have to pick a load of options that have to be a certain width etc and need a lot of work, thereby not really benefiting me very much at all. Thanks.

Well if it doesn't fit with your above advisement then it jolly well should.
This sort of thing needs to start with the farmer who knows the unproductively high cost areas in his farm( that most of us have iguess) and then making it workable on paper/ fit the beurocratic system not the other way around.

Pity if you have to need consultant aswell, that will just take money away from base, wasting resources.

 

[DrWazzock]

Herbal ley sounds like the way forward then. It won’t block my drains either.

 

[DrWazzock]

But we won’t necessarily have any livestock. Could just mow for hay but I’ve never considered that particularly bee, bird or vole friendly. I don’t think a lot of the annually sown options are very friendly either and the seed seems phenomenally expensive and difficult to establish with any certainty here due ironically to birds or a dry spring.

 

[serf]

Sounds the best way around these awkward bits to make fields square , nothing worse than piking off in wet corners and making mess for little gain , waste of fert ect overlapping, and if you can get a payment on top bonus ( without to much nonsense involved ) .
Even still if no payment your herbal ley sounds the way to go.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Voles and consequentlyOwls like long grass But indespersed with bare areas orcut strips so the vloes/ mice come out and be seen by the owl and get snaffled up iyswim.

Just needs a bit of a rotation with timely cutting and some of the area not cut for one whole year sort of thing

 

[DrWazzock]

Probably herbal ley is best compromise. Keeps it manageable without year on year establishment risk and expense. I don’t like the idea of grazing it near watercourses. Nightmare to fence being long triangular bits etc, or they tread the banks. Plenty of ponies around who like late mowed crap belly fill with low nutrient value. But must not overdo the legumes. The heavy and light areas will promote different grasses and herbs as well.
I think it’s a plan. Thanks.

 

[DrWazzock]

Sounds the best way around these awkward bits to make fields square , nothing worse than piking off in wet corners and making mess for little gain , waste of fert ect overlapping, and if you can get a payment on top bonus ( without to much nonsense involved ) .
Even still if no payment your herbal ley sounds the way to go.

Yes we have most heavy land along tapers near watercourses. Never ready to cultivate till May, holds the entire field work up, short work and headland. Bad combinations. Cut them off.

 

[DrWazzock]

But to answer my own original question there doesn’t seem to be a “ natural regeneration” option which I find surprising given all the hype about recreating wilderness etc. Most options look like growing a crop really with all the problems and disturbance that goes with it like carbon release etc. Why not just leave it alone?

 

[DrWazzock]

Blows my mind really. There is even a high level option for eyesore removal and loads of other stuff that I thought were just part and parcel of maintaining your own property.
Does anybody do anything off their own bat anymore?
Sod it I will put these awkward bits down to Timothy where it’s strong and Cocksfoot where it’s light and Chuck a bag of wildflower and clover in. And do as I like with it I think. Plenty of demand for small hay bales.

 

[Hindsight]

After some serious thought I have decided I would be willing to allow 40 acres out of 180 to go to natural regeneration. Its all extremes of soil types and would buffer and straightnen the edges of watersourses very nicely leaving me with the easier working land in nice square blocks, amenable to easy farming.
I am willing to go over the land to be regenerated once only to establish a grass seed/ wild flower mix but I dont really want to revisit it after that as I'd see it as a waste of time and resouces.
Will this approach fit any of the Mid Tier options or do I have to build up a patchwork of different fiddly and messy things. I am also willing to leave over wintered stubbles and retain some low intensity grazing that we havent already ploughed up. Suspect I need a consultant but this is what I'd like to do rather than have to pick a load of options that have to be a certain width etc and need a lot of work, thereby not really benefiting me very much at all. Thanks.

AB1 and AB8 are your friend Dr W if you want to continue to suckle the teat. Enjoy.

 

[Lincsman]

I too need something like the above, £500/ha to never go in the field again except to top it every few years, should get my Carbon footprint close to zero which is all that matters now.

 

[DrWazzock]

AB1 and AB8 are your friend Dr W if you want to continue to suckle the teat. Enjoy.

There is a lot of mention of say 5x 0.5 ha blocks spread across 100 ha. I am trying to reduce obstacles, not add to them. I wonder about establishment. This land grows bindweed, fat hen and redshank without trying. Wonder which would win in a dry spring. But actually the fat hen provides a lot of seed for birds in the winter.
I have ruled off a 20 acre long rectangular block the length of the farm through which a watercourse meanders. I suppose pollinator mix would be ok if they will allow it in such a block and I can actually get it to establish.
I had thought it would have been acceptable to just leave it alone. Native plants such as a gorse and briar and harebells would reestablish across it coming from their last refuge on the watercourse banks. Lowland Heath or something. It would look a mess but would store carbon and sort itself out eventually.

 

[DrWazzock]

Just to add, my feeling was that leaving a huge buffer around the watercourse would satisfy many demands such as spray buffer, soil erosion etc. But really it’s unsuitable for grazing though. A nightmare to fence and we seem to have lost interest in livestock anyway. I don’t really want shrubs and such like taking hold and getting in the drains though.

 

[DrWazzock]

I have left one very small area of land alone for 40 years and all there is on it is tussocky grass. It’s quite boring really but contains a thick mat of dead material and loads of beetles.

 

[puppet]

The previous owner and ourselves have planted corners in every field over the past 28 years. 200 acres, all grassland with areas 1/4 to 5 acres which breaks up the farm and gives shelter and wildlife cover.
Once you exclude stock it is amazing how some areas become impenetrable with scrub in a few years.
Is there some way you can cut late to allow bird hatching then extensive grazing to manage it until autumn?

 

[DrWazzock]

My concern with livestock next to the wstercourse is that it flies in the face of soil erosion and reduction of nutrient flow into the watercourse. Fencing would be very expensive and makes ditching work difficult.
Don’t they want impenetrable scrub? Isn’t that what rewilding is? I thought impenetrable scrub was the holy grail to Mr Monbiot and the carbon capture lot?! No?

 

[spin cycle]

stewardship is 'work' for a 'customer' who 'pays'....if you don't accept that concept tis better to stay away IMO