It is the time of year
when IF the sun comes out it is warm and the faint green shoots of
spring are beginning to break and birds singing. A time to feel
good.
However most days I
walk across Park Downs and in doing so walk along the side of the
adjacent field to the west of the Downs. What a depressing place, it
seems to me to symbolise all that is wrong with agriculture and the
causes of the decline in wildlife. At the moment the rotten stubble is waiting for
this years crop to be sown.
Last year it had a cereal crop and as is
usual was bombarded with insecticide and herbicide through the
season. Following harvest there was an explosion of seed
germination, mostly spilt wheat and rape but a few wild flowers including
Fumitory, Speedwell and Black Bindweed. This is obviously an
anathema to the farming fraternity and so out came the herbicide in
October/November to destroy the vegetation. Presumably, a total weedkiller was used and it must be effective because since then nothing (below), I mean
nothing, has germinated, even the moss is looking very unhealthy.
For all the value to wildlife it has, this field may as well be
concrete. You also have to ask if it's effects have last through the winter, what happens to the run-off? Not much better, the green in the background is a field of winter cereal that is no doubt due it's first dose of chemicals very soon.
As if poison is not enough, this field has not been ploughed for some years. Prior to planting the soil is lightly tilled (no soil turning) and then the seed drilled. Without ploughing it means the surface seed bank is not replenished and with time the diversity of the seed bank will decrease until even the longest-lived seeds are dead, then the field will be able to be ploughed and nothing germinate at all. Now that would save on herbicide!! No weeds, no insects (no bees), no birds!
Elsewhere in the blogosphere Canon's Farm regularly features for its birds, perhaps it is not surprrising that it is usually migrants that provide the interest, after all they have to stop somewhere for a rest! The only saving grace for the breeding birds is that there are a numbers of copses scattered about the farm (used for shooting) and Banstead Woods is next door that can support some birds.
What is sad is that if you do a little research, all this is common knowledge but such is the power of the agricultural and agrichemical industry nothing gets done about it.
Just to provide a little bit of cheer, cornfield weeds are by a lot of people usually taken to mean the obvious Poppies, Cornflowers etc. but to me most are much less obvious plants typified by one of my favourites, Field Pansy (Viola arvensis), with flowers less than an inch high you have to get down to see them but the effort is worth it!. This picture was taken along the side of this field a few years ago when it was abundant. Last summer, with improved spray coverage right up to the edge of the fields there were only a few plants scattered along the field.
