A very big thank you to Malcolm and Ann Russell who hosted this yearâs seedling safari and winter meadow management training day at Westfield Steading on a misty late November day. Malcolm and Ann have restored 1.5ha of species poor grassland as part of the Airwick â WWF-UK project using brush harvested seed from two local donor sites. After an… Read more →
Tag Archive for grazing
Seedling Safari and Winter Management practices for recently restored swards
A chance to discuss winter meadow management with or without grazing livestock to increase the chances of your restoration being successful. Alongside this we will be testing out our plant ID skills with a seedling identification session. We are very kindly being hosted by Malcolm and Ann Russell who restored 1.5ha of grassland as part of the 2022 Botanica Project supported by Air Wick… Read more →
Celebrating flower rich grassland: integrating wood pasture and wood meadow with farming
We had a full house at the fifth and final event in our 2022 Meadows, Mosaics and Mitigating Climate Change series hosted by Nick and Nicci Lloyd at Fernhall Farm. It was fantastic to have been able to have Dan Carne, UK Director of the Woodmeadow Trust, as our guest speaker for the event. Dan kicked off proceedings by giving… Read more →
National Meadows Day – Saturday 2nd July
On Saturday 2nd July we celebrated National Meadows Day, a day dedicated to species rich grasslands. Miriam Griffiths and Anthony Furness hosted a farm walk at Olchon Court where we discussed the management approach they have followed that has created such wonderful, diverse meadows in a mosaic with trees, woodland, pond, riverbank and orchard. This included talking about some of… Read more →
Grassland Carbon – restoration, creation and management practices that affect carbon sequestration in grasslands
Caroline Hanks (Herefordshire Meadows) chaired a sequence of talks and a panel discussion at a Zoom event hosted by Plantlife as part of their Meadow Makers partnership, that gave an introduction to the rapidly evolving science on grassland carbon. Drawing upon the findings from her 2021 report for CIEEM entitled Carbon and Ecosystems: Restoration and Creation to Capture Carbon Penny Anderson… Read more →
Shelterbelts and ‘Living Barn’ Wood Pasture Mosaics
This event will be of interest to anyone outwintering livestock who would like to discuss the theory and practicalities of trees and shelterbelts on farms and how these can support and enhance grasslands and grazing systems. We are delighted to be joined by Sam Hollick (Bangor University) who will discuss some of the findings from his PhD work entitled âOptimising… Read more →
Wood Meadows
First in our series Meadows, Mosaics and Mitigating Climate Change Please join us to find out about this mosaic habitat and it’s potential benefits for livestock systems in Herefordshire George Peterken, renowned woodland ecologist, nature conservation advisor and author of the book Meadows (2013), will give a Zoom presentation about Wood Meadows. He will cover questions including ; what are wood-meadows,… Read more →
Role of well grazed and rested deep rooted diverse swards in carbon sequestration
We are grateful to Christine Page for sharing her drawings that help us think about the role of grazing systems with long rest periods and deep rooted diverse swards in carbon sequestration. To find out if your grazing system supports rapid or slow carbon sequestration click this link You can find out more on our website and Floodplain Meadows Partnership Read more →
Catch up: Tom Blunt on Utilising Native Breeds for Conservation and Regenerative Grazing
On 9th March Tom Blunt, from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST), gave a comprehensive overview of the role that native rare breeds can play in conservation and regenerative grazing systems. A large number of different livestock options were discussed including; sheep, goats, cattle, equines and pigs. Tom explained some of the differences between species and breeds and their pros… Read more →
Utilising Native Breeds for Conservation and Regenerative Grazing
This will be of interest to anyone whoâd 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 →