Congratulations to Nicholas Watts of Vine House Farm who is this year’s winner of the Nature of Farming award.
Vine House Farm is pleased, the RSPB is pleased, Butterfly Conservation is pleased and I am very pleased for Nicholas.
Nicholas was at the Bird Fair, as he always is, and I had a chat with him there.
This is the second year in a row when this blog has opted for the winner of the poll.
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The Wildlife Trusts who Nicholas and his family have been supporting through their business are also pleased – not sure why you missed this Mark!
http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/2013/09/25/watt-result-wildlife-friendly-farmer
Jono – I missed it because I didn’t know where to look! And I looked on the websites of the organisers of the competition first. Pleased that the WTs are pleased, that pleases me too!
Not the ‘lad’ I voted for but a worthy winner, as indeed any of them would have been. Can we have many more like them with proper and adequate support from CAP, NFU, Defra and others
David – hear, hear! There are quite a lot out there – but not enough.
Good to hear something positive, just a shame that they are the exception rather than the rule. Government needs to look again at policy.
Pity to see negative attitude suggesting not many out there doing things.
Totally incorrect,fact is they are a big majority out there belonging to environmental schemes that obviously help wildlife if schemes set up correctly,they just do not get heard about and no wonder when influential people who should know better enjoy giving the wrong impression.
T he fact schemes are badly set up is definitely not individual farmers fault and even if farmers point out parts of schemes that are stupid then nothing gets done.
Conservationists do need to realise however it is easier for large farmers to do things for wildlife than farmers on smaller farms the latter only making very modest profits anyway.
There really needs to be a concerted effort from the wildlife friendly organisations getting together and talking with NFU about getting the schemes to pay for what will actually improve wildlife and then putting pressure on for improvement.
I understand more than 75% of farms in some scheme so if schemes are set up properly we would almost certainly get results.
Almost without exception in life people always take the easiest option on offer to get income from any situation and that is exactly what is happening with these schemes.
Farmers no better or worse than any other group in this instance.
The fact that some go the extra mile is in fact a big bonus that they need not do for the schemes to claim their money.
Over the years I have surveyed many farms for habitats and birds and I must say that precious few do much purposefully for wildlife. By far the best arable farms I surveyed were those who were managing areas for gamebirds, their cover crops and seed crops were a life-saver for passerines in winter and good for insects in the summer. Organic farms were frequently less intensive and more alive too. This is not to say that farmers don’t care, but farming is a business, and that takes precedence over any measure taken for wildlife. Dennis is right on the fact that schemes are not always designed well, and farmers will un-naturally be drawn to where the money is and where they have to do the least to get any egri-enviornment money. Luckily, some do buck the trend.
excellent news. I was very impressed by what I read about Mr Watts after your recommendation, people like this give us some hope for the future.
Dennis, I agree with you. The very large scale “farmers” could easily sell a small part of their land holdings for “development” to make a large profit and still provide food. What I wonder is, are “schemes” the right way forward? Have successive governments really got to the bottom of the problem of growing enough food for the population. Seems to me we are in a circle, more people equals more housing, equals less land for food production. How did we ever manage in the fifties to grow food in small fields, in a countryside which contained thousands of miles of hedgerow, thousands of ponds, many more woods etc. Have we lost the plot?
Nick is a worthy winner. He is a farmer but was lucky to be born a birder as well.
Would it not be nice if the CLA and NFU congratulated Nick publicly for what he has achieved. Perhaps they are miffed that people like Nick prove our point that a farmer can do a lot for wildlife and still have a profitable business.
Derek – to be fair, the NFU does http://www.nfuonline.com/about-us/our-offices/east-midlands/holland-lincs/latest-news/well-deserved-award-for-lincolnshire-farmer/
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Dennis – there is a limit to what individual farmers can do – but not what NFU can do, and I’m afraid a lot of individual farmers have supported NFU in watering down schemes going all the way back to the original ESAs – we all know the most serious uptake problems, very especially for in field measures, are where the need is greatest (and profits highest) in the arable east.