Farmers can take the lead in improving water quality and promoting biodiversity
‘Leadership and learning are indispensable to one another,” said John F Kennedy, and I find his words quite apt. Starting into my second year of an Environmental Sustainability masters with UCD, I realise daily how much I have to learn about sustainability, but also how I can apply that learning on farm and lead by example.
The farm’s natural capital needs some care and attention before the winter and October is a super time to work on improving soil health, water quality and biodiversity.
Healthy soil is the foundation of any profitable, productive farm. Our goal here is to supply the nutrients required for optimal grass growth over the year in the right quantity, at the right time, while minimising losses.
We have built up a profile of soil samples from the farm and collated the pH, P and K results on a spreadsheet. Keeping year-on-year data together like this makes identifying areas to focus improvement on easier.
Our liming plan is the starting point with each field, correcting pH before tackling other deficiencies; 40t of ground lime and 50 units per acre of potash was spread last month, while last winter’s farmyard manure had six months of composting and turning before being ready to enrich the seed bed of the September reseed.
New regulations for water quality come into effect from January 1. Drinking troughs must be at least 20m from water courses, roadways will have to prevent direct run-off to waterways and fences must be at least 1.5m from the edge of watercourses, all of which we are working towards.
N, P and sediment entering water courses is a serious concern nationally, as is untreated domestic waste water.
The recent finger-pointing of blame around water quality deterioration is disappointing as each sector has their own part to play.
Agriculture can lead by example. With 1km of waterway on the farm, engaging with the ASSAP through our discussion group has helped us understand what is in our control at farm level that can affect water quality locally.
The EU Green Deal coming shortly contains the ambitious Biodiversity Strategy 2030. We could see implementation of greater measures to improve biodiversity at farm level and potentially an increase in habitat area threshold levels for each farm.
Requirements
If, for example, a habitat area threshold was set at 7pc, it’s estimated that 32pc of intensive farms would qualify, while over 90pc of extensive farms would meet such a requirement.
In terms of biodiversity on our farm, every level of the food chain is important as it impacts the level above. It’s a bit like having a strong underage development policy in a GAA club: when the lower levels are thriving, the senior teams benefit.
Similar to evaluating underage players, we had the farm habitats roughly quantified using Google maps, revealing over 12km of hedges and approximately 7pc of habitat cover.
Like GAA players, quantity is one thing but quality is quite another. To improve our habitat quality, without adding any new habitats, we have taken three simple measures:
■ We have some textbook examples of tall, full hedges with a variety of tree and plant species, but we also have some poorer ones. We have begun filling in weak spots with bareroot native trees (oak, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, rowan and birch) that we got for little cost from a scheme called Trees On The Land.
■ The tops of the hedges were left alone during hedge-cutting this month to allow some height for nesting birds.
On advice, we changed to a three-year rotation on cutting field ditches to allow fruiting and flowering for insects and mammals, preserving two-thirds of the hedges as a food source every year.
■ We have reduced the level of herbicide used under wires and around the farmyard.
One in three Irish bee species are under threat of being lost, and agriculture needs pollinators for productive crops, fruits and vegetables.
Management of yards, laneways and field margins to keep them neat has been reconsidered, with a concerted effort being made to pull ragwort or thistles while using spot spraying for noxious weeds only if needed.
As soil, water and biodiversity become more and more part of the conversation in dairy farm management, it’s simple steps that create positive outcomes.
While planting those bare-root trees, I brought along my nine-year-old son and his city cousin to help. I told them that what they planted that day would grow big and strong as they grew too and their children would be able to climb these trees in years to come.
Their eyes lit up at the idea that their actions would have such a big and lasting effect – hopefully that day’s work not only helped the underage squad in the ditches but also the one in our family too… learning and leadership.