You simply can't win...

[Tarw Coch]

common sense in farming means making smaller fields by planting hedges, means creating more headlands for turning, compaction, shade so it lays wetter, above all it dramatically cuts down the time and productivity of field operations ? im not saying that no hedges are a bad idea at all, but subdividing large fields permantly as opposed by temperary like electric fencing makes no sense ?

Aye, but I move my electric fence across the field daily, can’t do that with a hedge

Anyway, how do you define a large or small field?
There will most probably be fields in the country bigger than my entire farm.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I've wondered the same when we buy in road plannings

I don't think so, I was told that in England they are not selling road planings anymore, but are recycling them into new tarmac

 

[Tarw Coch]

I don't think so, I was told that in England they are not selling road planings anymore, but are recycling them into new tarmac

Don’t think that’s completely true, although recycling some into tarmac will reduce supply..

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Don’t think that’s completely true, although recycling some into tarmac will reduce supply..

tenant in the bungalow used to work in a quarry, and also running crushing plant, and he told me. All the planings that are sold are re cycled anyway into farm roads/hardstandings anyway.

 

[primmiemoo]

You can only do so much to stand in the way of progress, when I was a kid most of the gateways were 8 or 10 foot, by time I’d left school we were replacing with 12/13 foot gates, and now tend to use 15 foot in most places although I did recently widen a 13 foot gate onto the road up to a double 12 foot which means I can now turn in safely with any machinery without having to get over onto the wrong side of the road.
In reality very little hedge is removed nowadays by farmers, certainly in comparison to the amount removed by development.

If it’s acceptable for development to remove hedgerows in the name of progress then why not farmers? I don’t envisage a return to the 60’s or before when hedgerow removal was common place, far from it but I’m sure there will be instances where relatively small scale removal of hedge would benefit modern farming, although it would probably be a good idea if approval for such removal came with a condition to plant an equal or greater length of hedgerow elsewhere, I can’t think of any farms that don’t have some lengths of fence without hedgerow that could be planted in return for permission to remove elsewhere

Would a subset of that genuinely reasonable line of thinking have led to carbon offsetting?

I know of a small development of small houses where field hedges (proper south west hedges) were incorporated into the plans. No development otherwise!

I'll take note next time I'm out where the gapped hedges are, and see if there's any sign of new plantings. Somehow I doubt it. The gaps aren't widened gateways

 

[Farma Parma]

Try growing anything around here without guards & see how long it lasts! Yes, hedgerows need nurturing but expecting a full mature hedge in a few years isn't realistic - it takes decades for these things.

15yr ive got such a length of hedge here was all post n rail fencing before.

 

[kp_n_plghng]

Yes. 30m or something like that.

Are you sure? Never seen that in any regulations before. Pretty sure you can only remove a hedgerow which is less than 20 metres in length and has a gap both sides of it greater than 20 metres before it meets another hedgerow IYSWIM. So you couldn't just take a 20 metre chunk out of a hedgerow.

Round here I don't see any hedgerows removed, except by construction industry !!

 

[Angus]

If you can find a copy, the BTCV handbook on hedges was a masterpiece

Thanks @Bald Rick, it looks a really good book, looking forward to putting it into practice this winter Angus.

 

[Hjcarter]

I don't think so, I was told that in England they are not selling road planings anymore, but are recycling them into new tarmac

Some do some don't - can't get any off the motorway but got offered 30 ton last month after a bust water main on a local B road.