Farming to increase biodiversity

Trees for wildlife (& cider) 

Some of the land on our tenancy is unsuitable for growing flowers. It is either too exposed to salty Atlantic winds, too sandy or a combination of the two! Some of this land we can use for grazing but we have started to identify small parcels where it is trickier to fence the cows in. Most of these are on southern facing slopes that connect to other pockets of scrub and vegetation.

These tricky to fence, south facing slopes are protected by windbreak hedges planted years ago in an attempt to make them productive flower fields. We are now planting these slopes with cider apple trees. This will provide a better habitat for nature than just mowing the fields once a year. Also because these small fields are next to uncultivated land and bordered with hedges this planting will improve the connectivity of habitats. The environmental benefits don’t stop there, these trees will help the land capture and store carbon.

Cider by post? 

These fields are never going to be that productive, any apples we grow are in a way this land's 'side hustle'. You certainly won't be seeing our range of products expanding into cider or apple juice. The apples won’t go to waste, we hope that Holly and James who run St Martin's Vineyard will find them useful for making their delicious cider. 

More trees to come 

This is just the start of tree planting in suitable pockets of land and in existing hedges across our farm to improve habitat connectivity and biodiversity. We're being supported in this project by the Duchy of Cornwall, who have not only funded the trees but also provided guidance and advice to us and other farmers on the Scilly Isles.   

Thanks to this support we have been able to select and source not only really good quality trees but a selection of varieties that should do well in the Scilly's damp, mild, windy climate from Adam’s Apples.

Obviously planting orchards is a relatively long-term project. We look forward to a farm with more blossom, better habitats for nature and perhaps even the occasional can of cider from Holly and James. 

Robo flail 

Our farm sits within the Isles of Scilly National Landscape (formally called an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - AONB) and a lot of our land borders land managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust - IoS WT. Since 2010 we have been working closely with the IoS WT to deliver conservation grazing. Our small herd of beef cattle, graze on the headlands of the island and on our farm bring different benefits to the different types of land.

Unfortunately due to constraints on IoS WT resources some of the land on St Martin's has become severely neglected, resulting in a dense carpet of gorse developing. This has also reduced the areas we can graze with our cows and consequently, the biodiversity of these areas has declined. Quite a bit of this land is steep and literally drops off a cliff, not the type of place it is safe for someone to drive a tractor. So when we discovered the remote-controlled Robocut T500 we got quite excited!  

It is of course in our direct interest that the land is cleared for our hungry herd of pedigree Red Devons to graze and it is in the interests of the IoS WT and humanity in general that biodiversity is improved but as a small farm we couldn't justify investing in such an exciting bit of kit by ourselves. Working with the IoS WT we  received grant funding from the National Landscape to make it possible.  

Learning to drive 

Obviously learning to control such a powerful piece of machinery by remote control has taken a little bit of practice. Hidden under the gorse are low outcrops of very hard granite!  After a few repairs in the workshop we soon learnt the benefit of 'double cutting', going once over with the flail head high to remove the densest gorse and hopefully reveal any granite to be avoided on the second closer cut.  

The flail is not only useful for clearing large areas. We have used it very successfully in less dense gorse to cut a fence line. We can then put electric fence around areas where the gorse forms more of a mosaic with small patches of grazable land in between. The cows seem to really enjoy this sort of grazing, foraging for a rich mixture of edible plants between the gorse and bracken. This way we can also fence off extensive areas so we don't have to move them so often. 
(For those who are wondering a love of Faulty Towers is behind the name - Prunella Flail)