Conservation

Vine House farm is a traditional English farm, handed down from one generation to the next. My great grandfather moved here from Wisbeach in 1883. My grandfather, father, myself and my 3 girls have all been born in this house. I have always been interested in wildlife.

30 years ago I had stopped filling dykes in as I realised that they were habitats for wildlife. I was doing quite a bit of conservation while all my neighbours were busy making their fields bigger and making sure they were ploughing right up to the dyke sides. I just like to see a lot of birds about and so I try and run my farm so that I have a lot of birds about, it makes it a lot more enjoyable place. So here at Vine House Farm we are continuing a lifetime's devotion to conservation and conserving. Back in 1980 I installed a straw burner to heat my house and office, every year since then I have saved 1000s of litres of oil as my house and office have been heated have been heated by straw, wood or cardboard and now by growing as much of the bird food as possible I am saving 1000s of litres of oil and less vehicles on the road each year by growing bird seed that would be otherwise be imported, so why not Buy your bird food direct from the farm and it will come from our fields to your feeders.

Our main crop in area is wheat but our most valuable crop is potatoes. We also grow sugar beet, barley, oil seed rape, peas and linseed.

It was in 1982 that I wanted to know what birds were breeding on my farm so one spring morning I set off down the farm with a map and pen recording all the birds I saw and heard. I have done this every year since 1982. I always do it at the same time of year at the same time of day, take the same time over it and always do it in nice weather. I didn't do much with the records for a start but one wet summers afternoon in 1992 I sat down and worked out what had been happening to our farmland birds.

I was alarmed by the decrease in Skylarks and Corn Buntings. I didn't know whether it was a summer problem or a winter problem. It was the year set aside was introduced so I let my setaside mature and I had hundreds of birds feeding on it. The next year I grew an acre of wheat on my setaside land next to my farmyard and again I had hundreds of birds.

I opened up my farm to the public for them to share in the wild bird spectacle. Two or three people asked me if I could sell them any bird food. I told them I had never thought about selling bird food but I sold them some oil seed rape as that is what I fed myself. The next year I opened up the farm again and again I gave all the proceeds of the open day to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. More people asked me if I could sell them bird seed and so I was selling bird seed without even trying!

At that time I tried to enhance the rest of my setaside but that was only on 10% of my land. I knew that birds needed weeds in crops so in the end I decided to turn some of my farm to organic farming. In 1998 I sowed my first crop of clover so that I could become organic in 2000. I have now over 200 acres converted to organic farming and grow wheat, potatoes, dwarf beans , courgettes, sweetcorn and linseed. The potatoes are a red variety and you will find them in Waitrose from November until March. The dwarf beans you will also find in Waitrose in August and September. The courgettes are sent to Marks and Spencer in July, August and September. The sweetcorn is sent to Asda. I also supply River Nene and Able and Cole Organic box schemes and sell the vegetables in my farm shop.

National Decline of Farmland birds

Over the past 50 years the nations mission to produce more food by agricultural intensification, has deprived birds of food and nesting sites. Thus resulting in alarming declines in the species that rely on farmland.

Reversing the Decline at Vine House Farm

Conservation Measures
Determined not to let such wildlife declines continue at Vine House Farm, we have been implementing various conservation measures:

Redundant Dykes
25 years ago we resisted the economic trend to fill in dykes to increase field sizes, because they are a valuable habitat for wildlife.
Active Dykes
Farming in the Fens is reliant on a network of dykes. Maintaining and trimming the dykes can be disastrous to wildlife. Nicholas has persuaded the local drainage board to only cut each side on alternative years of our main drains, in to order preserve the valuable habitat.
25km of 2 Meter Field Margins
These widen the unsprayed boundaries between fields which harbour wildlife.
Hedges
2 miles of hedge has been planted in 5 years, providing a habitat for nesting birds such as the linnet.
Woodland
Three spinneys have been planted to provide a roosting habitat for birds that feed on the land.
Ponds
have been dug around the farm and planted with native plant species to provide a habitat for insects and birds. The largest pond has a small island which acts as a nesting site for terns (over 50 pairs this year), lapwing, oyster catcher, redshank black headed gull and tufted duck. In 2004 I have dug a series of ponds and scrapes at Vine House Farm about 20 meters wide and 300 meters long and repeated that in 2005 at Baston Fen. Done really to get more water about as where there is water there is plenty of life and the similar ponds I dug on Vine House Farm in 1998 have always been so full of life.

Setaside
is not simply left fallow, crops (such as sunflowers) are planted for the birds to harvest.
Wild Flower Meadows
were planted in 1995 and more in 2001. I have a total of 12 now totalling 20 acres or 8 Hectares which are particularly valuable for insects such as butterflies, and therefore provide a food source for birds. Every year these are cut in August and the hay taken off. This makes them less fertile which the flowers like and so the flowers are increasing in them. Every year we walk over them spot spraying the thistles.
Feeding
primarily for wild pheasants, but also attracts other grain eating birds, and is particularly valuable for birds in the winter and spring, just as it is in your own gardens. Birds need the whole countryside during the summer as many of them have their own territory, it would be impractible to have a feeder every 50 yards around the farm, feeders do not provide insects which are needed to feed the fledglings so we are feeding them by trying to create a diverse habitat between our crops.
Oil Seed Rape
Harvest is a critical period because 50% of Reed buntings are still nesting in oil seed rape when it is swathed and no nests survive. Swathing, cutting the crops and laying it in rows is one way of preparing rape for harvest. The other way to prepare it for harvest is by spraying. This is far better for wildlife as all nests survive the spraying and all the young have fledged by the time the combine moves in. Here at Vine House Farm we spray the rape, and Reed Buntings have increased by 100% in the last 15 years. The RSPB now give my recomendations on oilseed rape nationally to farmers.
Flail Mowing
is avoided before the end of August to allow birds to fledge and grubs to mature. The flail mower is a viscous machine; it shoots twigs back into the hedge destroying any remaining nests, and also kills immature insects and grubs which are the breeding stock for next year. By using the flail mower sparingly we now have over 20 pairs of whitethroats nesting on the farms, which more than half the population in Deeping Fen. After birds have left their nest they still need feeding and of course after that they still need a plentiful supply of food as they are inexperienced at feeding themselves. Delaying flail mowing until September helps them over this critical period.
Redundant Farm Buildings
have been re-roofed to provide a home for nesting owls and by placing boxes in these buildings we have increased the population in Deeping Fen from 4 pairs in 1985 to 12 pairs in 2002. Because some farm buildings are falling down on other farmers land I have recently had three brick towers built in places well away from other farm buildings. These brick towers have places for Barn Owls, Kestrels and Tree Sparrows to nest and within two weeks of each one being built a Kestrels were using them as hunting posts.
Six meter Arable Weed Margins.
Field margins where we encourage weeds such as Fat hen ,Willow weed, Knotgrass and other annual arable weeds to grow. These are the weeds that insects live on and farmland birds need to feed their nestlings on. For 2005 there will be 16km of these. They will be cultivated each spring to ensure that the annual arable weeds germinate. Our annual arable weeds are host to more insects than grass weeds and in many of our crops there are no weeds so this is a different attempt to increase the insect population.
Barley in Wheat
In late June there is very little food in a modern wheat crop. By sprinkling a few grains of winter barley in my wheat seed there is now food in my wheat crop as winter barley becomes edible 3 weeks before winter wheat. All our buntings and field mice take advantage of the winter barley.
Organic Farming
The single greatest factor which has resulted in increased bird populations and biodiversity. 200 acres have presently been converted, with conversion continuing with another 50. This has been a challenge and I am enjoying it. Growing potatoes, courgettes and dwarf beans for Marks amd Spencer and Waitrose

Success Apparent by wild Life Figures

As a result of endless time and commitment, Vine House Farm is observing increases in bird populations compared to national populations which are either static or declining.

The table below enables the present population change at Vine House Farm to be compared to the national average.

	UK Population 1972 – 1996	Vine House Farm 1986 – 2004
Reed Bunting	-64%	+100%
Yellow Hammer	–60%	+50%
Lapwing	-60%	+300%
Barn Owls	Figure unavailable	+300%
Skylark	-75%	stable
Song Thrush	-66%	stable
Tree Sparrow	-85%	stable
Corn Bunting	-80%	still falling

National Recognition

Nicholas’ dedication to conservation has been recognised by gaining the following awards;

The Lincolnshire Environmental Award, 1995 Agricultural winner
The Cyanamid award, a national award for conservation. 1998 Winner
NFU Biodiversity Award 2001 Regional Winner, National Runner up
The Broadoak Farming Silver Lapwing Award, This is the countries most respected conservation award for farming.
1995 National Finalist
1998 National Finalist
2001 Winner!
Pride of Peterborough - Care For the Environment Award, 2002
Purdey Game and Countryside Management Award 2002, 2nd Place
East of England Countryside Management Award 2002
National Farmers Union

Farming Excellent Awards
Farm Retailer of the year 2004 Runner up
The David Brown Daily Telegraph Award. Winner 2004
Waitrose Leaf Marque Gower of the year 2005
Farmers Weekly Countryside Farmer of the year 2005. Finalist. Runner Up
M.B.E. awarded to Nicholas for his services to farming and conservation. January 2006

Find out more about our conservation work and the wildlife at Vine House Farm by visiting us on one of our open days or farm walks