Caroline Hanks and Sue Holland will share their experience and answer questions on the principles of meadow creation and restoration. Topics covered will include; what to think about when planning a meadow restoration, plus examples of some of the restoration methods Herefordshire Meadows’ members have used in recent years. This is for anyone who’s new to meadow creation and restoration,… Read more →
Events
A Smallholders Experience of Machinery for Flower Rich Meadows
Tim Daniels will give us a presentation about his 5.5 acre flower rich smallholding in Newton St. Margarets on the edge of the Black Mountains. Tim supports local meadow restoration projects as a seed donor and with practical management and restoration too. This talk is for any smallholder who’s wondering about the cost-benefits of purchasing their own machinery as opposed… Read more →
Utilising Native Breeds for Conservation and Regenerative Grazing
This will be of interest to anyone who’d like to find out about Breed traits and their values for different grazing systems Economics of native breeds Native breeds in grassland, scrub, wood pasture mosaics Importance of native genetics in regenerative grazing systems Tom Blunt has been Field Officer for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust since October 2015. RBST are working… Read more →
Mapping diverse swards of the future
THIS workshop is a chance to feed in your needs and experience of mapping at a simple level to help us achieve the diverse swards we want for our farms, local groups or clusters and landscape scale projects. This workshop is for you if you are asking questions such as How do I get started when I don’t have mapping… Read more →
Opportunities for transition to profitable livestock farming
Russ Carrington is a regenerative farming and supply chain consultant, and coordinator of the Global Grassfed Alliance. He was formerly at the helm of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association in the UK and tirelessly promotes the benefits of regenerative agriculture for animals, farmers and consumers. He also sits on a European Focus Group for Sustainable Beef and holds various roles across the… Read more →
Meadow Restoration 1 year on
This a great chance to see one of the 2019 pilot meadows a year on. Hilary Hillier is kindly showing us the meadow she enhanced a year ago with seed from Plantlife’s Joan’s Hill reserve. Come and hear how Hilary did the restoration work and see the results so far. This event is particularly relevant to anyone planning a restoration project… Read more →
Seedling Safari – First Stop of the Season
This is the first of our autumn seedling safaris and is a great chance to see a meadow in early establishment. Matt Pitts, Plantlife’s Meadow Adviser will be joining us to look at a restoration a few weeks after seeding where our host Ian Horsley has recently enhanced some permanent pasture with wildflower seed through the Boost for Biodiversity programme.… Read more →
Scrub management – making mosaics with livestock
The Thomas family has been managing a site with scrub, grassland, orchard and woodland at Risbury Court for years. Richard Thomas is kindly offering to share his experience of recent changes in grazing system on this mosaic of habitats. It is ideal for members who have scrub encroaching flower rich or potentially diverse swards and want find out more about… Read more →
Moths, meadows and mills
Our hosts are Hilary and Matthew Engel who will guide us around the farm and the historic mill at Fair Oak. David Lovelace will then set up one or more light traps and we will have the chance to see how this is done and to start to learn how to identify moths typical of the grassland landscape of the… Read more →
Wildflower seedling safari 2 with Matt Pitts from Plantlife
This is a virtual farm walk for anyone who sowed seed in 2019 and has seedlings emerging at the moment. We will look at photos from members meadows and Matt Pitts, Meadow Adviser from Plantlife will be on hand to ID seedlings and give advice on management of your meadow in the early months, including maintaining the balance between wildflower… Read more →