PROFILE JT Lines and Son
Martin Lines, Cambridgeshire farmer and chair of the newly formed Nature Friendly Farming Network
Waking up to wildlife
Bird counts on his Cambridgeshire farm informed and inspired Martin Lines in equal measure. Judith Tooth went to meet him
W
hen Cambridgeshire farmer Martin Lines organised a bird count
on part of his farm, he recorded corn buntings, turtle doves, sky- larks, sparrows, linnets, yellow hammers and more. But it was a different story on the other half of the farm.
Land on the rest of the farm
was more open from hedge remov- al and ditch filling a few decades earlier – prompting a huge dif- ference in results. “It woke me up,” he says. “I realised what a few hedges and a bit of water can do for wildlife.”
Martin had already set about putting some hedges back, but the survey results encouraged him to do more, taking awkward field corners out of production and es- tablishing field margins. Now he
is using a dyke running through the farm as a wildlife corridor, linking areas on his land and neighbouring farms. “We all say we can grow 10 or 11 tonnes a hectare but we all have difficult spots that really only produce something in, say, six years out of 10. Instead you can square your fields to make them simpler to manage and more productive, you have a regu- lar fixed income [under Country- side Stewardship] and you bring in wildlife and beneficial insects. We need a healthy environment and healthy farms, so we need to look at land flexibly.”
Creating habitats This year, Martin has extended the boundary habitats around the farm, sowing broad areas of
pollen and nectar mixes and bird seed mixes – albeit with mixed success in such dry conditions – along woodland edges and the dyke, again straightening field edges and encouraging wildlife into less productive areas in the process.
There are also 50 sky lark plots across the farm – small bare areas within the crop for nesting and feeding; a 2ha lapwing plot; six barn owl boxes and 70 oth- er bird boxes for various species such as tits, little owls and spot- ted flycatchers. “We’ve seen a huge increase in skylarks here and the manage- ment of the fields is no different – we just lift the drill to create the bare areas, and the occasion- al dump of seed that results en- courages corn buntings as well.” In September, Martin will take on the RSPB’s ‘Hope Farm’ at Grange Farm, Knapwell, add- ing 160ha to the 420ha he owns, rents or contract-farms around Eltisley. As well as his own areas of environmental and countryside stewardship, he delivers environ-
“
I want to work with pollinators and beneficial insects to create a more integrated system
mental schemes for other farmers locally. This means, for example, cutting and baling all his and his neighbours’ flower-rich margins in the autumn, a practical solu- tion that makes financial sense for all involved and encourages a wider range of species to thrive in the margins.
Crop management There have been changes in crop management, too: spring crop- ping now accounts for more than 50 per cent of the arable land, mainly as a means of blackgrass control. The worst fields are now much cleaner following two years of spring crops and a break of oil- seed rape or beans before mov- ing back into the main rotation. Five years ago the plough was dropped for a Kuhn Performer, and now, with an eye on a possible future glyphosate ban, a new drill with split seed tanks is planned to enable sowing different seeds in a single pass, and an integral crimper roller to destroy cover crops without chemicals. “If glyphosate goes in five years’ time I still want to be us- ing cover crops and be able to de- stroy them in a cheap and effi- cient way. And I’ve stopped using insecticides altogether: the ‘old mind’ said, get out and treat the problem; the ‘new mind’ is look- ing at the bigger picture.
AUGUST 2018 • ANGLIA FARMER 25
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