Farmers want to help wildlife and the vast majority believe that wildlife conservation is an integral part of their farming system according to two surveys conducted by The Voluntary Initiative. 
The VI surveys found that 86 per cent of farmers agree that environmental management and wildlife conservation are important parts of their farm management. However farmers appear not to accept the evidence of farmland bird declines from national surveys. Only 10 per cent of farmers interviewed believe farmland birds, such as lapwings and skylarks, have declined in their area, whereas 52 per cent thought they had increased. Similar results were found for populations of butterflies and bumblebees. Roughly half of the farmers who thought that farmland birds had declined accepted that it was because of changes in farming practice. The others thought that declines were due to predation, disturbance or loss of farmland to development.
Richard Winspear, RSPB agricultural adviser and chairman of the VI biodiversity group, said: “The surveys show that farmers really do want to do their bit for wildlife but they do not always notice the declines or the reasons for the declines. Clearly we need to explain this better.
“The results of this survey provide a focus for the VI and other initiatives, like the Campaign for the Farmed Environment, to help farmers and advisers understand what they can do to increase populations of wild birds and other wildlife indicators.”
- Alister Borthwick - 08/02/2012
Looking after the wild life at Deepdale Farms
Reviewed by ajb 4.7.11 and 7.7.11
At the end of September 2011 one of the stewardship schemes run by defra will come to an end and not be available for renewal. That does not mean to say that Alister Borthwick and his team at Deepdale are giving up helping the environment in this area. We live and work here.
In no particular order but numbered for ease of reference
1. Leaving and encouraging the spread of Buddlea so liked by butterflies
2. Collect litter
3. Dispose of dumped rubbish
4. No longer intensively rear pheasants but continue with feeders for wild birds
5. Overwintered stubbles, one government scheme demands 6% of the arable area, we achieve nearly 30% most years due to our cropping of carrots and sugar beet.
6. Make tents for wild birds out of brush wood in the woods
7. Leave piles of logs for bug canopies
8. Leave dead and dyeing trees for wood peckers
9. Put up owl boxes
10. Grass areas, cut some areas short and leave other long
11. Put in wild bird seed mixes and replace as necessary
12. Place big bales of straw in various places to act as wind breaks
13. Try to make sure that visitors and locals keep dogs under proper control
14. Vermin control
15. Sympathetic hedge cutting
16. Woodland work to aid wildlife such as opening up sunny areas in the middle of what would be very dense canopy of leave.
17. Replant trees
18. Extend woods
19. Plant hedges
20. Water points
21. Identified 8 areas suitable for wild bird mix for measuring up after end of stewardship
22. Ragwort control, it is now so bad that spot spraying is no longer an option
23. Japanese Knot weed has appeared for the first time having escaped from a garden
24. Giant Hogweed control as required
25. Erected about 50 Deer and Vermin enclosures to allow natural regeneration in the woods
26. Propagate willow trees in wet land
27. Propagate hazel from existing clumps
28. We will continue with bird species counts
29. We will continue with plant species counts