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THE RURAL STEWARDSHIP SCHEME Prescriptions for Field
Margins and Boundaries 20. Management of Grass Margin or Beetlebank
in Arable Fields
| Aim: To create strips around or across
fields on which insects can over-winter and breed early in the season. This allows
them to effect a useful form of biological control by attacking aphid populations
in adjacent crops. The strips also provide food and cover for birds. Some
BAP species that may benefit: Grey partridge, Linnet, Bullfinch, Spotted
flycatcher, Corn bunting, Purple ramping-fumitory, Cornflower Eligible
sites: Land forming a strip between 1.5 metres and 6 metres in width around
or across an arable field. |
| 
Photo: D. Bell - SNH
| Management
Requirements: - On bare land the strip must be established by sowing
a suitable mix of grass seed.
- Fertiliser, slurry or manure must not be
applied
to the strips. - Scrub control and the use of pesticides may
be allowed only with the prior written agreement
of Scottish Ministers. - A
sterile strip up to 0.5m in width may be created and maintained by rotovation
and herbicide along the inner edge of the grass margin. Such a strip will provide
young birds with an area on which to dry out and also act as a buffer preventing
the spread of weeds from the grass margin into the crop.
- Grazing of the
grass margin or beetlebank after harvest is permissible provided the average height
of vegetation in the strip is not taken below 100mm.
Also...
- Any field selected for grass margins or beetlebanks must remain in
an arable crop, i.e. cereals, linseeds, oilseed, root crops, fruit crops or protein
crops, including vining peas, for the duration of participation in the scheme,
to obtain full conservation benefit from this prescription. In a mixed arable
situation where a field will be put into grass or a non-eligible crop after 3
years, the beetlebank/margin may be transferred to another eligible field for
the remaining 2 years of the scheme, in expectation that this will continue into
the second 5 year cycle. Transfer of a beetlebank/grass margin may only be carried
out once during the 5 year cycle of the scheme. SERAD need to be given details
at application stage of the beetlebank/grass margins to be 'rotated' in this way,
i.e. Field Identifiers and area measurements.
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