One way to improve the nature conservation value of an arable farm without serious impact on profitability is to establish conservation headlands. These are strips around selected edges of fields in which the agro-ecological conditions are managed to encourage the establishment of a non-aggressive, diverse flora which provides a habitat and food source for desirable fauna. Set-aside and conservation funding may be available in certain conditions to partially offset establishment costs.

THE BENEFITS OF CONSERVATION HEADLANDS

	They limit invasion of the field from the boundary by aggressive weeds such as cleavers and sterile brome.
	Wild flowers provide a nectar source for hoverflies which can suppress invasion by cereal aphids.
	The plants and their leaf litter provide cover for predatory beetles, which also control insect pests.
	Insects encouraged by the floristic diversity provide an essential protein source for both wild birds and game-bird chicks.
	The diverse ground cover can provide nest sites for ground nesting birds such as the skylark and, particularly if backed by a hedge, sunning sites for game birds.
	The floristic diversity provides food for a wide variety of butterflies and songbirds.
	The flowers are pleasant to look at and foster an image of environmentally conscious agriculture.
	The short grass with attractive wild flowers can be used to encourage walkers to use footpaths where these have been diverted around the headlands.

Establishment is straightforward. A seed mixture suitable to the soil and situation is selected and sown into a prepared seedbed either in September or early spring. September sowings should be favoured on dry soils, spring sowings are more successful on sites where chickweed (Stellaria media) and cleavers (Galium aparine) are present.

Management requirements are not expensive, they vary according to the individual farmer’s objectives and local conditions. In general, care is necessary to avoid spray drift onto the conservation headland from normal operations carried out on the rest of the field. In the initial stages it may be necessary to apply a well timed mowing or selective herbicide to control aggressive weeds to enable the desirable species to become established.

After the initial investment in establishment, the conservation headland should require no expensive management input. Topping (working from the centre of the field towards the boundary so that young birds are encouraged to retreat to the field boundary) in late winter and late summer is often all that is required. A conservation headland should provide a good long term investment in farmer satisfaction and public relations as well as being of genuine conservation benefit.

SEED MIXTURES

Different species of plants grow best on chalky soils than those which grow on heavy clay soils. It is therefore best to specify the soil type when ordering the seed. Herbiseed can then tailor a mixture to the soil type and to your objectives.

In general a seed mixture for conservation headlands should consist of slow growing grasses such as red fescue plus 5% tussock grass such as cocksfoot or oatgrass and up to 10 wild flowers appropriate to the soil type. Where encouraging seed eating birds or gamebirds is a major objective, non-competitive but prolific seeding plants may be included in the mixture.

Herbiseed, New Farm, Mire Lane, West End, Twyford, RG10 0NJ, England.
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