Natur Cymru is a quarterly magazine about the wildlife and environment of Wales. As of 1st April 2017 Natur Cymru has ceased publishing. We hope this is a temporary situation. Back copies are still available for sale, please see our website for full details and to find out more about Natur Cymru and its role in reporting on Welsh wildlife www.naturcymru.org.uk
May and June are great months to walk along the Lleyn coast.
In May, slopes and streamsides the sheep can’t reach are carpeted with
primroses, thrift and spring squill. Scrubby patches and gorse along the cliff
edges are good for breeding whitethroats and stonechats, while the short
well-grazed turf attracts migrant wheatears and feeding choughs. Other migrant
birds along the coast include whimbrel on their way to Iceland or NW Russia (we
saw 115 between Porth Ysgaden and Porth Dinllaen on May 8th) and
noisy Sandwich terns fishing close in. And when the sun comes out so do the
butterflies – wall browns, small heaths and common blues.
Ynys Enlli from the tip of Lleyn
Our longest stretch so far this year was 10 miles from Porth Oer (Whistling Sands) to Aberdaron, right round the headland facing Ynys Enlli (Bardsey). We sat and ate lunch looking across to Bardsey, a sort of funny reverse experience for us!
Llyn Coastal Bus
One problem facing the coastal walker is how to get back to
where you started – unless you are carrying a tent, of course. Walking the
Lleyn Coastal Path in stages is much easier this year because of a special
Minibus service for walkers. On four days each week until the end of October, a
minibus runs every two hours from Abersoch to Aberdaron and on to Nefyn, with a second vehicle doing the
opposite. The fare is £1, and the driver will pick up or drop off passengers at
any point on the coast the minibus can reach.
So if you enjoy walking on the coast of Wales, make sure you
get to Lleyn this year, as who knows if the minibuses will continue in 2017.
And as you walk along the path, remember to thank the National Trust and the
Welsh Government for making the coast so accessible.
Over the past year I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of interesting people at National Trust properties across Wales to make short films about their conservation work.
At Cwm Idwal we filmed early when the arctic alpines were blooming and later in the summer when everywhere was purple with heather. Amazing geology and incredible what a difference sheep grazing or the lack of it can make. Here is a link to the English and to the Welsh.
Cwm Ivy is another magical place down on the Gower where a medieval seawall has been breached and a brand new salt marsh has been created. The transition from pasture to salt marsh was incredibly quick, new species quickly filled the gap. Here is a link to the film.
To give people an idea of the sort of work that goes into managing a National Trust woodland we filmed in each season to show the activities at different times of year. This film condenses a year in the life of Rhodri Wigley and the Dolmelynllyn Woodland into 15 minutes. Here is a link to
In Ceredigion there are 9 sites which are part of the Save Our Magnificent Meadows project. This particular site was just north of Aberporth and a group of volunteers was being trained to identify plants and thus be able to monitor the progress of the meadows. Here is a link to the film.
The Cregennan Lakes between Cadair Idris and the Mawddach are the best in Wales, the benchmark against which all other lakes are measured. This film incorporates dive footage which shows the plantlife growing at almost twice the depth of other lakes.
The waxcaps at Llanerchaeron are beautiful and so is the soil analysis and DNA science which helps you detect which species are present without the need to see the fruiting bodies. Here is a link to the film.
I always look forward to my visits to Pembrokeshire but as I drove down through the storms I thought it was going to be a wasted journey. Fortunately the Gods were on our side and we had 5 hours of filming before the heavens opened again. This is what they are doing on the Castlemartin Peninsula.
At Hafod y Llan a second shepherd was appointed to control the sheep which were grazing the wrong parts of the mountain as soon as the first shepherd clocked off at the end of his shift. Here is a link to the English and to the Welsh.
The geography of the Migneint is so impressive and vast but it still needs managing. This is what is being done to improve the conditions for species such as the Red Grouse. Here is a link to the film.
I also had the opportunity to make some films about the Llyn Peninsula which were not commissioned by the National Trust but included a lot of their input. Here is a link to one of those films.
I’m part way
through making a film titled Dolmelynllyn - a Year in the Life of a National
Trust Woodland. Basically I go with my camera once in each season and Rhodri
Wigley takes me around to explain the various work that goes on at different
times of year.
At the end
of the year I will condense the four seasons into one film but for the moment
they are published separately. So far Spring and Summer have been filmed and
the beautiful Highland Cattle have featured in both.
Welsh language versions of the films are also published on YouTube. Click here for Haf and here for Gwanwyn.
Too many
sheep, with consequent overgrazing, has damaged the rich mix of plantlife at
Hafod y Llan, the farm that rises from the Nant Gwynant valley floor to the
summit of Snowdon. Believe it or not, sheep are picky eaters, with a bit of a
sweet tooth for particular plants, leaving others to thrive and dominate the mountain
sward.
Bilberry and heather regenerating on the foothills of Snowdon
Since the
National Trust acquired the farm 15 years ago the number of sheep has been
halved but the plantlife has not recovered everywhere or as well as hoped. The problem is
that sheep, like nature, abhor a vacuum and sheep from neighbouring farms have
been trespassing. Worse still, they like to graze on the more sensitive areas
on the higher slopes of the mountains.
To sort this
out a shepherd was employed in 2014 to push the sheep into the correct areas
and to evict the trespassers. But when he knocked off, the sheep ‘came out to
play’. So this year a second shepherd has been appointed and between the two of
them they can provide 7 day cover during daylight hours in the summer. Hopefully
the mountain tops will soon be a purple haze of blooming heather and fruiting
bilberry with sheep growing fat on the pasture below.
If you’d
like to know more about this project, embracing traditional shepherding to tackle a current issue, this
film might be of interest (Welsh version first and English version below):
Dyffryn
Mymbyr is the hill farm immortalised in ‘I
Bought a Mountain’, the Thomas Firbank book published 75 years ago and
reprinted countless times. It’s a page-turner telling the story of Firbank
buying the farm in 1931, along with thousands of sheep, and making a go of it,
despite being a novice born in Canada.
A central character in the book and pillar
of strength is Esmé, who he met and married a couple of years later. They went
their separate ways during the war and afterwards Firbank gave the farm to Esmé
where she lived with her new partner Peter Kirby. She went on to found the
Snowdonia Society, and much later the Esmé Kirby Snowdonia Trust, campaigning relentlessly
to prevent inappropriate developments spoiling the natural beauty of Snowdonia.
After their deaths the farm was acquired by the National Trust in 2005 and
since 2010 its two farmhouses have been let to people on a self-catering basis.
Sabre planting in a gully of a stream
Recent guests
at the one farmhouse were a party of volunteers ‘sabre planting’ trees
into the ffridd; that’s the steep hillside beneath the mountain wall above and
the improved land beyond the road below. Sabre planting? The hills are alive with
the sound of music and the bleating of hungry sheep who’ll nibble on anything
they can reach, making it difficult to establish new trees. But if you plant a
sapling at a 90° degree angle to the hillside, it makes it much harder to
reach. Within a year or so the sapling develops a sabre shape as it bends
upwards to the sun.
Simon Rogers, the National Trust's Community Ranger for North Snowdonia, showed us examples, scoring the volunteers’ efforts on a scale
of 1 to 10. ‘That’s a 7 or 8, the gorse
downhill from the sapling adds extra protection, but that one over there is a 3
or 4 – far too accessible if a sheep stands on that slab of rock’. Most of
the planting to date has been in the gullies eroded by streams. These have
steep sides, are partly sheltered from the ferocious winds and the grazing here
is not the best i.e. the farming productivity is not being compromised.
Saplings are
grown in pots, the consequent root ball giving them a greater chance of success,
to a minimum height of 140cm. Sheep might be able to nibble at the lower
branches but not the leading branches at the top. Nibbling or pruning the lower
branches encourages growth into the leading branches which accelerates the
growth into the safe zone.
The 5 year
project, which is at the end of its first winter, will see the planting of 3,000
native trees; a mix of Rowan, Birch, Alder, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Oak, Hazel,
Willow and Crab Apple. These trees will help establish a bridge or woodland
corridor between the wooded valleys of Nant Gwynant and around Capel Curig.
Funding for this project has been provided in part by a generous donation from the Royal Oak Foundation(the American partner of the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland) to commemorate Fiona Reynolds’ time as Director General. Fiona was a close friend of Esmé and Peter and enjoyed many visits to Dyffryn Mymbyr. Funding has also been provided by the Esmé Kirby Snowdonia Trust.
Participants at the Wales Woodland Meeting visit Dyffryn Mymbyr
Natur Cymru had many articles and mentions of the Ancient Tree Forum in its pages. If trees are your thing, now there's a chance to get more involved.
Tracey Lovering is starting up a Welsh branch of the UK Ancient Tree Forum and is inviting all interested people along to the first meeting on 23rd April. If you are unable to make this date there will be other opportunities to meet this summer and autumn across Wales.To book a place, register an interest, or for further information, please email Tracey at t.lovering@btinternet.com
The National Trust are generously hosting the first meeting at Dinefwr Park, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire. Brian Muelaner, UK Chair of Ancient Tree Forum Wales, will be there to introduce everyone to the Ancient Tree Forum, and set the context for the day. Brian has visited Dinefwr Park previously, and suggested the site as ideal for the first meeting as it has a range of notable trees.
If you are a National Trust member please ensure you bring your card on the day, as all scanned memberships will help towards the cost of the room (which NT will meet).
Agenda
10.00 Tea/coffee available (Newton House Dining Room - exhibition room)
10.30 Welcome - Tracey Lovering
10.40 Introduction to Ancient Tree Forum - Brian Muelaner
11.40 Tree walk around estate - Part 1
13.00 Lunch
13.45 Tree walk around estate - Part 2
15.15 Next steps (inside session); discussion on provisional programme for year
14.15 Close
The National Trust have been offered a synopsis of the day, and also any findings or records which the Trust can add to the knowledge already existing for the site. If you'd like to volunteer to help produce this synopsis and/or collate records, please let Tracey know.
Here's hoping it's a good day and the weather is kind!
Mighty
castles and stately homes present just one side of the National Trust in Wales
but there is so much more that often goes unreported. The vast tracts of land and
farms, in the uplands and along the coast, don’t just look after themselves;
they need to be managed to bring out their best. They are managed for the preservation
of rare plants or creatures, for sheer beauty of the landscape or to provide
access so that people can get out and experience it first hand.
Glory be to the National Trust and also to Natural Resources Wales for their support in making this happen.
In the past
year I have been lucky to see this other side through the lens of a camera and to re-live
the moments as I edited the footage into films.
Tom Jones
My first
assignment was at Penarfynydd Farm where I met Tom Jones the farmer. Penarfynydd
is a National Trust tenanted farm 3 miles west of Aberdaron near the village of
Rhiw on the Llŷn Peninsula. Twenty years ago the heathland was in poor shape
with intensive sheep grazing but today it is looking good with a mixed regime
which includes cattle, ponies and a specialist breed of sheep. This is a
success story in which both the farm’s economy and a broad range of scarce
wildlife have benefitted through multiple partners including Natural Resources Wales, working as an effective
team. Penarfynydd is living proof that farming and nature conservation does not
need to be a compromise. This is what Tom had to say about it:
My next
assignment was to do with species rich grasslands. Since I was born 60 years
ago 99% of species rich grassland in Wales has disappeared; victim of modern
farming and gardening practice. But great things are happening at a dozen
National Trust properties to champion these grasslands, to restore hay meadows brimming
with wild flowers and to inspire people to have a go with their own pockets of
land. The result is beautiful and
creates a paradise for bees, butterflies and other insects.
Dave Swanton
To raise
awareness of this project, which is supported by Natural Resources Wales, I was asked to make films at three of the properties;
Powis Castle, Erddig and Bodnant. It was a privilege to meet the gardeners, to
see and hear how they manage their grasslands.
Steep
terraces rise up from the Great Lawn to the red Powis Castle on the skyline.
Giant topiaries and manicured lawns at the top, then lush herbaceous borders
and, on the lowest slopes, trees and shrubs in a sea of tall grass packed full
of ox-eye daisies. The wild, natural flora complements the formality and
landscaping. Dave Swanton explains:
We managed
to attract the attention of Country Life and had a small news item about Powis
Castle and its grasslands published in a summer edition of the magazine.
I’d not been
to Erddig before, really impressive but a different look and feel to Powis.
Over 2,000 orchid spikes were in bloom on the canal banks near the great
house – up until the 1980s these would
have been mown down the moment they lifted their heads out of the ground. Glyn
Smith explains:
At Bodnant
we did not go to the usual places but started in Old Park Meadow which was only
recently opened to the public. Here, as at the other properties, I was
introduced to the wonders of yellow rattle, a magic ingredient which reduces
the vigour of the grass, creating pockets for wild flowers to colonise. Bill
Warrell explains:
Suitably
inspired I bought a 500g bag of yellow rattle seed and sowed it in different
parts of my lawns and grass banks last autumn. It needs to be done at that time
of year so that the seeds are exposed to winter chills, a prerequisite for
germinating in the spring. Would putting them in the deep freeze achieve the
same purpose?
Orchids at Erddig
If my lawn
does indeed take off into a hay meadow it’ll need mowing in August so I joined
in a scything workshop that was organised at Bodnant and learnt about snath and
peen. A snath is the wooden handle of a scythe onto the end of which is fixed
the razor sharp blade of a scythe, in our case an Austrian scythe. Keeping it
sharp is of the essence; rubbing a wetstone repeatedly over the top of the
blade, then removing the burr on the underside, every two to three minutes.
But after a
day of scything, sharpening alone will not be enough, and it will be time to
peen your blade. This is a cold forging of the steel; using a hammer to strike
onto a peening rig, the final 4 mm of the blade is beaten outwards to give a
thin profile which is then ready for sharpening.
Why does it
need to be a wetstone? In sharpening, the stone is taking off dirt and metal
which would gunge up the stone unless it is kept and washed in a pouch of
water.
In summer 2015
I will publish an article about the Bodnant hay meadows in The Countryman magazine.
You can see the art of scything at our workshop in this short film, Tai Chi
with a Blade:
In late
summer (2014) I started another series of films covering five very different sites
and types of work. The first was Gupton Farm at Freshwater West; best known as
Wales’s premier surfing beach and to some people as the film set for Harry
Potter or Robin Hood. Many others know it as a beautiful beach for holidays or
a great space to walk the dog. What’s not so well known is that it’s home to
Gupton Farm, a 400 acre farm that’s at the forefront of pioneering work to
accommodate rising sea levels and climate change.
Freshwater West
Through
appropriate grazing in different seasons the National Trust’s tenant farmer,
Chris James, is working in partnership with Natural Resources Wales, to help the landscape respond in a natural way. As sea levels
rise and squeeze the narrow coastal strip, once arable fields are being
encouraged to revert to dunes, thereby providing effective defences against
flooding and extending scarce habitat.
Beyond the
dunes is a rare fen meadow, a haven for all sorts of flora and fauna and a
vital feeding ground for overwintering birds. Through anticipating change, this
habitat will be saved and migrated inland; and it’s being done without
compromising the financial viability of the farm. Jonathan Hughes, General
Manager for the National Trust in Pembrokeshire, explains how it all works:
I went back
again in the winter when the land was thoroughly waterlogged and amongst other
things we saw large numbers of lapwings and other species feasting on the
grains from the silage and the many insects and invertebrates. Birds and
cattle, farmers and ornithologists - all in harmony; perfect!
Jonathan
Hughes, General Manager for the National Trust in Pembrokeshire, describes and
shows what it looks like in winter:
In the Gower
I made a film about Cwm Ivy. For hundreds of years there has been a sea wall at
Cwm Ivy but climate change and rising sea levels mean that it is no longer a
defendable position. The wall has been breached and on a regular basis salt
water flows into what used to be a SSSI freshwater marsh. Whilst we have lost
the freshwater marsh, we have gained valuable new saltmarsh.
The
outstanding issue is that the sea wall forms part of the Wales coastal path and
at present walkers are needing to take a diversionary route.
Alan
Kearsley Evans explains the situation in this short film and the plans for a
bridge over the breach as well as aspirations for this becoming a site for
ospreys.
Wetting the
Migneint. The Migneint,
a vast, upland bog, between Ffestiniog and Ysbyty Ifan, is much wetter than it
used to be. Over a series of years the National Trust has been working with
Natural Resources Wales and several
other partners to block drainage ditches; the oldest were put in to ‘improve’
the grouse shooting for the Victorians and the more recent ones to ‘improve’
grazing and productivity.
Pete the Peat - extracting a core
Anyone who
has walked in the Migneint will know the tug and squelch of the peat bogs but
it’s been unnaturally dry for many years. What might at first have seemed an
improvement has been an environmental ‘own goal’ resulting in the loss of
thousands of tonnes of peat which is a great store for carbon. Without water,
new peat can’t form and dry peat oxidises, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
Another
consequence of ditches is that rainwater rushes off the uplands contributing to
floods downstream in the Conwy valley.
Andrew
Roberts from the National Trust explains the finer points of building 30,000
dams and Pete Jones, the Peatland Ecologist from Natural Resources Wales, extracts 500 years of history
from a core of peat.
Dolmelynllyn
is for lovers of the lower plants. The ancient woodlands around Dolmelynllyn
are a Mecca for lichens, liverworts and mosses; the so-called ‘lower plants’.
Students travel hundreds of miles to see the rare specimens, just a few miles
north of Dolgellau, many of which have disappeared elsewhere a long time ago.
Red-eyed shingle lichen
The magic
formula is an abundance of rain, the temperate Celtic rainforest, fresh air and
sensible management by the National Trust with help from Plantlife and Natural
Resources Wales.
Rhodri
Wigley, the lead ranger for the National Trust at Dolmelynllyn, and Dave
Lamacraft, from Plantlife Cymru, explain what’s so special and how they care
for it.
The coastal
heathland of North Pembrokeshire is hardly prime agricultural land and without
grazing, it would soon become overgrown; bad news for walkers, also for birds
such as chough and for several rare plants.
Andrew Tuddenham
For many
years the National Trust has made use of wild ponies to keep the heaths under
control but now the focus has switched to grazing by Welsh Blacks. Not only do
they do a better job, they also provide valuable food helping to offset the
costs of conservation.
Until
recently the cattle were overwintered in a number of small barns scattered
across the area. But now all over-wintering has been brought under one roof at
Southwood Farm; much more efficient and making it feasible to breed and build
up the herd.
Traditional
field walls ripped up in the drive for greater productivity are being replaced
to allow greater management of grazing land, moving cattle in time to avoid
turning fields into mud baths. New footpaths are being introduced connecting
with the nearby coast path and there are plans to create a bunkhouse. And for
bedding the cattle are enjoying the local heather and gorse harvested with a
Ryetec Flail Collector to create fire breaks on the heath.
Everyone’s a
winner it seems! Here’s Andrew Tuddenham explaining the background and the
plans for the future:
In the
Autumn I enjoyed the two day Heathlands for
the Future seminar organised by the HLF Llŷn Landscape Partnership
(Partneriaeth Tirlun Llŷn). There is so much being done - I wrote
up the event as a series of 5 x blogposts:
There is so
much material from all these stories that I am converting it into a presentation
about the NTs conservation work in Wales; the first booking is with the
Flintshire U3A.
Dolmelynllyn is for lovers of the lower plants. The ancient woodlands around Dolmelynllyn are a Mecca for lichens, liverworts and mosses; the so-called ‘lower plants’. Students travel hundreds of miles to see the rare specimens, just a few miles north of Dolgellau, many of which have disappeared elsewhere a long time ago.
The magic formula is an abundance of rain, the temperate Celtic rainforest, fresh air and sensible management by the National Trust with help from Plantlife and Natural Resources Wales.
Rhodri Wigley, the lead ranger for the National Trust at Dolmelynllyn, and Dave Lamacraft, from Plantlife Cymru, explain what’s so special and how they care for it.
Common sense
is a great thing; when you hear it, you know it makes sense. That’s how I felt,
listening to Sharon Parr explain how they farm for conservation in the Burren. It’s
a vast area of limestone pavement in the middle of the west coast or Ireland, home
to a profusion of wild flowers from March to November, including the Irish
Orchid. It’s a hotspot for walkers and tourism and the jewel in the crown of
Irish wildlife. Lots of invertebrates and archaeology abounds from Mesolithic to
the enclosures era.
Half of it
is designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and 6% is a ‘national
park’ (with just one member of staff!) but almost all of it is privately owned
by farmers who have eked out a living on what is now considered ‘marginal’
land. Whereas in Wales we used to send stock to the uplands in summer and to
the lowlands in winter, the Burren farmers traditionally do the reverse,
leaving the uplands, with all their flowers, fallow through the summer.
Modern
techniques such as feeding silage are not good for the Burren; the consequent
pools of slurry around the feeders pour through the limestone karst into the
aquifers below. Also, cattle eating silage have less need to roam around
grazing the vegetation and in particular the hazel scrub which is prolific
here.
Since 2005
the Burren has received significant EU LIFE funding which has harnessed the
knowledge and enthusiasm of farmers to operate in a way which is good for
farming and good for nature. Whereas the local agri-environment scheme penalises
you, for not implementing a meaningless activity (e.g. a 30 metre exclusion
zone from monuments which might be relevant on arable farms but serves no
purpose in the Burren), the Burren LIFE scheme rewards positive farming.
It’s not about the number of stock or the grazing days, it’s about delivering a product
and the main measure is species rich grassland. It’s up to the farmer to decide
how he delivers the product, if he achieves it through grazing elephants,
that’s his business!
Each field
is scored (by Sharon or a colleague) from 1 to 10 with the higher score
generating more money. 2 or less earns nothing, 3 earns €36 per hectare and 10
is worth €120 per hectare. There is no rule that says you can’t use silage but
if you do, then that field will not be eligible for any reward. In recent years
silage consumption has dropped by 61% and the trend is towards higher scores
for the fields.
The shift
away from silage has been helped by the creation of Burren LIFE feed; a
concentrate with all the right minerals designed following an investigation of
local vegetation. Cattle are given a couple of handfuls each day after
Christmas, when grazing becomes less good, and it takes them just a few minutes
to eat and lick out the trough as opposed to prolonged sessions at a silage
feeder. In this way the cattle are put into good condition for spring calving. Not only do the cattle get all the essential
minerals, but the feed also stimulates them to even more grazing.
There are
other possibilities to receive funding for agreed improvements such as scrub
control, for gates, internal walls, water supplies etc. These all contribute to
the bigger picture of bringing more land under management through appropriate
grazing. For these works the farmers fund 25% to 75% of the total cost.
Does it
work? The results have been spectacular and the Burren project is held up as an
example of best practice – hopefully there will be an ‘afterLIFE’ when the
current funding finishes in 2015.
Unlike
Glastir in Wales, which has not been taken up by as many farmers as hoped for,
the Burren project has been oversubscribed; 345 farmers applied but there was
only room to accommodate 159. Those in the scheme have received on average
€7,500 per year with the maximum payout €15,000.
I met a Llŷn
farmer the following day who told me that under Glastir he would be expected to
reduce the number of grazing sheep to just 37 of his flock of over 150. In his
view this would be totally impractical and result in the land becoming
overgrown and good for no-one. Fortunately farmers like this one have been able
to receive targeted items of funding via Partneriaeth Tirlun Llŷn which seems
to follow the common sense approach of Burren LIFE!
It also makes sense that
these two projects are learning from each other. Sharon Parr was one of the speakers and participants at the Heathlands for the Future seminar held near Aberdaron on 8th to 9th October 2014.
Snath and
peen? Not an anagram but two new words for me. Snath is the wooden
handle of a scythe onto the end of which is fixed the razor sharp blade of a
scythe, in our case an Austrian scythe. Keeping it sharp is of the essence;
rubbing a wetstone repeatedly over the top of the blade, then removing the burr
on the underside, every two to three minutes.
But after a day
of scything, sharpening alone will not be enough, and it will be time to peen
your blade. This is a cold forging of the steel; using a hammer to strike onto
a peening rig, the final 4 mm of the blade is beaten outwards to give a thin
profile which is then ready for sharpening.
Why does it
need to be a wetstone? In sharpening, the stone is taking off dirt and metal
which would gunge up the stone unless it is kept and washed in a pouch of
water.
Blades peened
and sharpened we were inducted into the technique of scything on Cae Poeth, one
of the National Trust’s wildflower meadows at Bodnant Gardens. Keep the wind to
your back, work downhill and cut at a right angle to the lie of the sward; it’s
not always possible to manage all three! The blade should be slid across the
ground as it needs to be as close as possible to the base of the grasses if it
is going to cut as opposed to stroke. Head down, stay focused and get into the
zone sometimes described as Tai Chi with a blade.
Our
instructor, Siôn Jinkinson, explained that in a day it should be possible to
scythe an acre of meadow. This is somewhat less than the boast in H E Bates’
short story, The Mower, in which Ponto claimed:
'Me and my old dad used to mow twenty- acre
fields afore dark - and start with the dew on. Twenty- acre fields. You don't
know what mowin' is.' He went on to say .... 'My old man used to drink twenty pints a day. God's truth. Twenty pints
a day. He was a bloody champion. You can't mow without beer.’
I enjoyed my
scything workshop, so peaceful compared to strimming, with no pollution and less
chance of wounding wildlife. As for the relative costs the scythe wins hands
down – a good scythe, complete with accompanying tools to sharpen and peen, can
cost about £135, will last a lifetime and needs no fuel other than what you
eat. Equipment can be ordered from The Scythe Shop and Siôn Jinkinson is the
distributor for north Wales.
Thanks Siôn and
thanks National Trust. A great day.
Penarfynydd is
a National Trust tenanted farm 4km west of Aberdaron near the village of Rhiw
on the Llŷn Peninsula. Twenty years ago the heathland was in poor shape with
intensive sheep grazing but today it is looking good with a mixed regime which
includes cattle, ponies and a specialist breed of sheep. This is a success
story in which both the farm’s economy and a broad range of scarce wildlife have
benefitted through multiple partners working as an effective team. Penarfynydd
is living proof that farming and nature conservation does not need to be a
compromise.
You can read the rest of this blogpost or you can listen to Tom explaining what it's all about:
Tom
It is very
much a mixed farm where Tom Jones, the farmer, manages 850 ewes, 70 beef cattle
and contract rears around 100 dairy heifers.
His wife Sharon also rears pigs which are sold direct through farmers
markets and in local shops. Spring sown cereals such as barley and oats are grown
for winter feed and when the hens are laying, locals and passers-by on the Wales
Coast Path can buy eggs at the farm gate.
The farm has
a mixture of improved and unimproved land, which includes land outside NT
ownership. The unimproved land comprises two large areas of steep, rough
coastal grazing, Mynydd Penarfynydd and Mynydd Graig, with a smaller area of coastal
slope at Porth Ysgo.
Importance for Wildlife
These
coastal habitats are of international significance and designated as a Special
Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). In
particular Mynydd Graig is one of the best and largest remaining examples of
heathland on the Llŷn, where heathland declined by around 50% between 1920 and
1998¹. On the exposed coastal fringes, whipped by high winds and salt spray,
are communities of maritime plants such as spring squill, sea thrift and,
clinging to rock ledges, the nationally rare golden samphire.
Penarfynydd
and Mynydd Craig are designated for chough with two pairs breeding in the coastal
sea caves. They feed on the invertebrates in animal dung and can sometimes be
seen guzzling yellow meadow ants whose nests dot the unploughed grasslands. In
autumn and winter, when the choughs have finished breeding and form mixed
groups, small flocks come to feed on the site.
These chough
have been studied for over 20 years; one of the breeding females was raised in
Port Dinorwig, and probably met her partner when he travelled from Llŷn to roost
over winter in Snowdonia.
Golden Hair Lichen
The wonderful
mix of heath and grassland, coastal habitats, bracken, flushes and pools makes
for an incredible diversity, including dark green fritillary (using violets
under the bracken for breeding), adders tongue fern, adder, palmate newt, brown
hare, peregrine falcon, yellow hammer and meadow pipit. The striking, bright
yellow, golden hair lichen takes advantage of basic rock outcrops, across the
ridge of Mynydd Penarfynydd, created during volcanic episodes over 400 million
years ago.
As Tom says,
‘it’s designated for just about
everything!’
Sheep reductions
Over 20
years ago Mynydd Graig and Mynydd Penarfynydd looked very different; the sites
were used all year round and heavily grazed by sheep with vegetation only a few
centimetres high. In winter, as the
grasses died back and lost their nutrition, the sheep would seek out the sweet
tasty shoots of heather.
As part of a
Section 15 management agreement² with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) sheep
numbers were reduced and excluded altogether during autumn and winter. In the
short term the removal of winter sheep protected the heathland, the structure
of the vegetation became more diverse and suppressed heather was released. But
this summer-only grazing regime was not enough to keep on top of the tougher,
coarser species and the heathland and grassland habitats were becoming engulfed
by gorse and bracken.
As the
coarse, unpalatable species spread, sites such as these become less relevant to
farms and this is often the point at which these sites become abandoned, or
trapped into unsustainable burning cycles in an attempt to clear the gorse and
stimulate a flush of grass. Both the
wildlife and farms lose out.
Ponies
In 2006 10
ponies were introduced to Mynydd Penarfynydd to help tackle the coarse
vegetation and nibble on the gorse to keep the heathlands more open. These ponies, a rare breed from the harsh
environment of the Carneddau, are used to grazing on poor quality vegetation
and ideally suited to life on Penarfynydd.
Whilst they generate no income for the farm Tom says they pay their way by
keeping the vegetation in better condition for sheep. He likes having them
around and, although they are shy of adults, they have made friends with his
young children. They also keep the turf shorter, which helps foraging chough,
and provide the all important source of dung close to the nest sites of the
chough.
Cattle
Mynydd Graig,
which has been occupied since the Bronze Age and has medieval field systems, is
an enormous site needing a large number of animals to make an impact on the
vegetation. 30 Welsh black cattle were
introduced in 2009, helped by a Section 15 management agreement with fencing,
water supply and bracken control works.
Originally these animals were from the family’s breeding herd but, since
taking over the farm, Tom has been tweaking the system.
Supported by
the Llŷn Coastal Partnership³ some fencing for a particularly tricky bit of the
coast has been added, a water trough was moved to resolve the problem of cattle
creating a quagmire on the coastal path, and an additional trough helps spread
the cattle across the site. The biggest
change was a decision to move away from putting cows and calves on the site; Tom
now buys in low value store cattle from the uplands and sells them on after one
year. This system is producing good
margins with the animals remaining on Mynydd Graig all year without any
supplementary feeding.
Bracken
control has helped to increase the area of grazeable land available to both
cattle and sheep with sheep on the site during the late summer but removed for
the winter. This mixed grazing regime is ideal for chough, heath and the
coastal habitats. The cattle help prevent the bracken from returning and have
successfully grazed the rank grassland. They
have also made some in-roads into opening up the heathland and, as part of his
Glastir agreement, Tom will be experimenting with small-scale burns, to help
break-up the vegetation and entice the cattle to graze there and keep even more
of the heath open.
Utilising
Mynydd Graig in this way has provided an entirely new income stream for the
farm which does not place any additional demands on the rest of his
enterprise.
Aberdale Sheep
Although
sheep grazing at the wrong time of year can be damaging to heathland it should be
part of the mix; sheep are particularly important on coastal grasslands where
the diversity of flowers depends upon grazing. Around Llŷn there are numerous examples of
coastal grasslands where grazing has been abandoned or is under-utilised.
Aberdales are prolific breeders
Using the
same principles as he applied to Mynydd Graig with cattle, Tom has been looking
for ways to improve his margins on the unimproved coastal land at Porth
Ysgo. He is currently working with
Innovis, a company which provides Aberdale sheep, a breed which was developed
to help farmers make more efficient use of poorer marginal land. The experiment is working well with 197% scanning
rates and savings on feed costs. Because the ewes cannot be grazed on good land,
without the risk of producing too many lambs, the Aberdales need to be managed
entirely on the marginal land. Even though they are tupped on
the least productive ground, the Aberdale flock can still maintain a high
output of lambs which is critical to the bottom line.
Rotational Cattle grazing
Strip grazing
Tom has also
been experimenting with rotational grazing on his improved land and has
produced a Farming Connect (Welsh Government Knowledge Transfer Programme) case
study to share his experience with other farmers. 60 dairy heifers graze on 12 acres in total;
they graze 1 acre at a time and are moved on every 24 to 72 hours. This system leads to better soil fertility,
healthier plants with deeper roots and better balanced mineral content for
animal nutrition and an increased ratio of dry matter quantity to palatability.
For Tom this
means better liveweight gains and greater utilisation of his improved pasture.
This style of management also reduces the need for expensive fertiliser inputs.
In nature conservation terms the use of fertiliser can have a big, negative
impact by adding atmospheric nitrogen to habitats which rely on being poor in
nutrients for their diversity and richness.
The approach
The
management of Mynydd Graig and Mynydd Penarfynydd has been supported through a
mixture of agri-environment schemes, Section 15 management agreements and
capital works such as fencing and bracken control funded by the Llŷn Coastal
Partnership. Using Section 15 to top up agri-environment schemes was the key in
supporting the introduction of cattle and ponies.
Through
working with the partnership the farm has been able to draw on a broad range of
expertise for working on the management of designated sites. Most importantly
there has been a two way dialogue between the farm and the partnership to
develop solutions that work in the real world.
References
1.Changes in the extent and fragmentation of
heathland and other semi-natural habitats between 1920–1922 and 1987–1988 in
the Llŷn Peninsula. Stevens 1992
2.Section 15 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act
1981
3.Llŷn
Coastal Partnership - a long established partnership of statutory agencies, environmental
and community organisations; led by Gwynedd Council and including NRW, National
Trust and RSPB. Cadw’r Lliw yn Llŷn project ran for four years before the
landscape partnership was successful in gaining a Heritage Lottery Fund grant
for a range of projects including heathland management and new walks linked to
the coastal path. The HLF has now
entered its final year. http://www.ahne-Llŷn-aonb.org/36/en-GB/Landscape-Partnership
