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Cereal Field Margins and Arable Crops
Arable farmland can consist of small individual fields surrounded by grassland and other habitats (as in many areas of the north and west of Scotland), but it can also consist of large areas dominated by a wide range of different crop types (as in the productive areas of the north-east and south-east). This can have a major effect on some species, such as the brown hare (Box 5.4).
Across Scotland as a whole, about 600,000 hectares (or 13 per cent of the total agricultural land) is under arable crops, excluding rotational grassland, each year. Although the area grown has decreased somewhat in recent years, barley is still the major crop grown on Scottish farms. In addition, the move to autumn-sown cereals has not occurred to anything like the same extent as in southern Britain. Over half of the Scottish cereal crop is still planted in the spring although there is increasing economic pressure on farmers to shift towards autumn planting. Spring sowing enables the retention of stubble fields which are essential for birds to forage in during the winter, and the later harvest dates associated with spring crops means that many late-breeding birds are able to raise their young successfully. This provides an opportunity that will be missed if present trends towards autumn sowing continue.
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Declines in habitat diversity have affected the brown hare |
Arable and cereal crop production in Scotland has, by and large, followed the general trend of mechanisation and intensification exhibited elsewhere in the remainder of the UK. In particular, there has been a reduction in the rotation of crops with other land covers and an associated decline in the practice of undersowing cereal crops to produce a grass ley after harvest. As a consequence, there has been a substantial reduction in the attractiveness of arable crops to a wide range of plant, invertebrate, mammal and bird species. The main factor responsible for the decline of grey partridge across the UK has been identified as reduced food supplies for chicks caused by the use of insecticides and herbicides. The loss of nest sites (such as hedge bottoms) through herbicide spraying and hedge removal has also been blamed.
Cereals dominate arable production across the UK. The intensive practices associated with their cultivation, growth and harvest have been identified as having adverse effects on a range of wildlife species (including several once common farmland songbirds, such as the grey partridge mentioned above, and arable flowers such as the cornflower and shepherd's needle). This recognition, combined with the economic importance of the cereal crop, prompted research into ways to manage cereal field margins to provide benefits for wildlife without having any serious detrimental effects on the productivity of the remaining cropped area. As a consequence, the Cereal Field Margins Habitat Action Plan contains a variety of possible ways to manage different sized strips around the crop so as to favour wild arable plants and invertebrates. The overall objective of this Habitat Action Plan is to maintain, improve and restore the biodiversity value of 15,000 ha of cereal field margins in the UK by 2010. There is still a need to refine the approaches for use in the Scottish situation and to promote the relevant techniques among the arable farming community. This is a key action for advisory and training bodies as well as for the contractors who both advise on and apply pesticide spray programmes.
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National Countryside Monitoring Scheme |
box5.5 |
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Biocide Use |
box 5.6 |
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In many years, nearly all of the Scottish cereal crop is treated with herbicides and a large proportion of the crop is also treated with fungicides. Pesticide usage on Scottish cereal crops fluctuates more from year-to-year than in southern Britain. Farmers in Scotland carry out less 'insurance' spraying and in most years take note of the perceived need (or lack of it) for pesticide use. Insecticide use on cereals (mainly directed against aphids) varies from year to year depending on risk, but in most years only a very small proportion of the total area of the Scottish cereal crop is treated. In order to avoid detrimental impacts on farmland birds and the wider environment, good practice requires reduced and targeted use of pesticides, treating only when necessary (and then only spraying problem areas within a crop). The use of herbicides will decrease the amount of broad-leaved weeds present in many of the stubbles over winter. This could have a detrimental effect on many of the seed-eating bird species and has led to the virtual extinction in Scotland of many 'cornfield weeds', such as cornflower, corn cockle, corn cleavers and shepherd's needle. This may explain the contraction in range of the corn bunting away from areas where large amounts of cereals are still grown, in addition to its loss from areas where the arable extent has decreased. |
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