Farmers’ co-op saves butterflies

Farmers have banded together to become “bankers” for rare butterflies in the Dorset and Hampshire countryside.

A group of 15 farmers has teamed up, creating 30 metre-long chalk banks on the Cranborne Estate, close to the Martin Down National Nature Reserve.

The banks have been planted with almost 400 kidney vetch plants and seven species of native wildflowers.

The rare Small Blue butterfly, the UK’S tiniest native species, lays its eggs, lives and feeds on kidney vetch.

Megan Lock, of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, said: “These plants should thrive in the nutrient-poor soil but still leave lots of bare earth for mining bees and burrowing wasps.

“The Small Blue butterfly has been chosen by the farmers as one of their priority species. This new habitat should help them increase their range around the nature reserve.”