MMN July 2024 – Are You Species-Rich?

With the release of the roadmap to 2025 and the Whole Farm Plan, farmers across Scotland have been assessing to what extent they meet the new requirements to maintain their current levels of support and are hurriedly trying to get carbon audits, soil samples and integrated pest management and health plans completed. Among the list of potential actions you could take is to have a farm biodiversity audit completed.

Biodiversity is a new language that farmers across Scotland have learned or should learn in the near future, as being able to identify, quantify and articulate the conditions of the habitats present on your farm will only become more important. In addition to Scottish Government, milk buyers too have recently moved in this direction, seeing the opportunities to appeal to customers and provide public good, as well as future-proof against potential nature markets.

Species-rich is a term used to describe a habitat that has an abundance of native wildflower species. With few exceptions, a wildflower metric has been developed and is in use by several organisations and companies to assess species-richness. The metric includes 25 species that can be found across different land and soil types and sets out some disqualifying criteria, many of which would apply to the improved pastures farmed by the dairy sector.

Species-rich grasslands were once common across much of Scotland in some form or another. Records suggest that up to 97% of these native meadows have been lost in the last 100 years. The grasslands can often appear as undervalued or unimproved and generally of low agricultural value. However they are incredibly important for a range of insect species, farmland birds and small mammals. They also play an important role in locking carbon into soils, buffering water margins, floodplains and are highly palatable to grazing livestock. Often these grasslands are fragile, fragmented and the native wildflower species have been outcompeted by conventional species like Italian and perennial ryegrasses encouraged through improvements, which can make finding them in dairy units more difficult than say, upland units.

But are there opportunities being missed by the dairy sector? Cattle are the preferred grazing livestock for conservation. Their natural grazing patterns, trampling and light poaching can help to encourage the spread of this native pasture, and the integration of livestock is a core part of regenerative farming practices. With careful consideration and planning, can native pastures find a home in some of our most productive farms? Are they already there?

From mid-June into July, supposedly summer and peak pollinator and wildflower season, now is the best time to assess the number and diversity of wildflower species in your pastures. Twenty-five is a lot to remember but next time you are out in the field, consider how many of these you see.