Resilent Dairy Landscapes project update (May 2020)
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Progress report for the UKRI Global Food Security programme's Resilient Dairy Landscapes project (May 2020). For more information, visit: https://www.resilientdairylandscapes.com/
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Resilent Dairy Landscapes project update (May 2020)
- 7. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Qualitative interviews • Income from the Nestle scheme provided important stability and resilience for farm businesses • Most already motivated to protect environment and undertaking some agri-environmental work, which they could continue under the scheme • The scheme motivated a minority of farmers to undertake new environmental work • Scheme uptake motivated primarily by financial incentives and compatibility with existing animal management and farm characteristics • Widespread satisfaction with scheme compared to complexity of public agri-environment schemes Coyne et al. (under review) Land Use Policy
- 8. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Delphi survey Most important drivers of engagement with scheme: 1. Additional, stable income for easily planned/reported and flexible activities that are compatible with existing management 2. Improving environmental outcomes & animal health Farmers satisfied overall but had some concerns: • Timing of deadlines • Additional burden of planning and reporting • Unfunded cost of maintaining some interventions • Labour/fertiliser price changes not taken into account • Scheme doesn’t provide capital works grants/loans Kendall et al. (in prep.)
- 9. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Integration of ecosystem markets • Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code may provide co-investment into LENs, while LENs may provide additional buyers for carbon schemes • Integration of these schemes with new public schemes could increase overall funding for sustainable practices that are explicitly multifunctional (avoiding ecosystem service trade- offs) • Integration options being explored that address: • Additionality of benefits • Complexity and transaction costs • Competition with publicly funded schemes Curtis et al. (2020)
- 10. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Planned work for 2020-21 • Interviews to interrogate key issues for successfully delivering ecosystem services using the LENS model (in Cumbria, Hampshire Avon, and East Anglia), considering: • Stability and longevity of delivery • Integration of delivery with existing regulatory tools • Identifying key motivation and incentives for supply and demand side participants
- 12. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Animal disease/welfare • We compiled a prioritised list of vector-borne diseases affecting cattle in the UK • Modelled risk of an incursion of Bluetongue virus (BTV), in response to hedgerow and tree planting (which could create breeding sites for the vector of BTV, Culicoides midges) • Model showed changes in midge numbers were unlikely to affect the establishment or national spread following an incursion of bluetongue disease
- 13. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Animal disease/welfare • Bulk tank milk samples from Nestle farms were tested for liver fluke monthly for 7 months • 11 out of 12 farms had high levels of fluke • Unfenced and fenced waterbodies were identified on the farms fieldwork showed that there were fewer infected snails (liver fluke vectors) in areas that had been fenced • A mathematical liver fluke model is under development • Nuisance and biting dipteran fly species and numbers associated with a range of ages of hedgerows will be investigated in summer 2020
- 15. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Soils and biodiversity Surveying soil under different age hedgerows on Cumbrian farms • Hedges divided into four age groups: Old; 1983; Mid 2000’s; New (2017-18) • Soils sampled from under the hedge and in the adjacent field at five depths • New hedge planted on Leeds farm with three species; with and without mulch • Monitoring birds and plants in and next to hedgerows
- 16. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Soils and biodiversity Finding 1: Hedgerows sequester carbon in the soil Old 1983 2010 New Soil organic matter (LOI)/carbon (TOC) in top 5 cm of soil beneath hedge in comparison to adjacent field The closer values are to 1 the more similar LOI and TOC in soil beneath hedge are to the adjacent field soil. Figure shows that as hedge age increases soil beneath it contains more soil organic matter and carbon than the adjacent field.
- 17. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Soils and biodiversity Finding 2: SOM content increases with hedge age; hedge soil sequesters carbon Soil organic matter (LOI)/carbon (TOC) in top 50 cm of soil beneath hedge in comparison to adjacent field Figure shows that soil organic matter (SOM) and carbon content of soil profile (top 50 cm) beneath hedge becomes more different from adjacent field as age of hedge increases. Old 1983 2010 New
- 18. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Soils and biodiversity Finding 3: Hedgerows soils are generally drier and less compact than adjacent field and water infiltration and percolation are enhanced beneath hedges other than new hedges Soil Moisture, bulk density (BD) and hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) in top 5cm of soil The closer values are to 1 the more similar soil beneath hedge is to the adjacent field soil. Figure shows that as hedge age increases soil beneath it has lower moisture content, lower bulk density (BD) and higher hydraulic conductivity (Ksat).
- 19. www.resilientdairylandscapes.com Soils and biodiversity Finding 4: Hedgerows promote biodiversity Based on broadleaf plant surveys under hedge vs. 8 m into field, hedgerow samples had • 2.7 more broadleaf plant cover • 2.8 more broadleaf plant species richness • Strongly contrasting plant community composition (see figure)
- 20. Soils and biodiversity Finding 5: The oldest hedgerows had greatest cover and diversity of plants growing under them (only a modest difference in plant community composition under hedges near and far from woodlands)
- 21. Soils and biodiversity • Soil organic matter and carbon increase in soil beneath hedges with age in comparison to adjacent pasture (biggest differences in top 10 cm) • Suggests hedges sequester carbon in the soil – but still need to work out carbon stocks • Hedgerows soils are drier and less compact than adjacent field and water infiltration and percolation are enhanced beneath hedges (Ksat higher under hedge than pasture) • This suggest that hedgerow soils can enhance water storage during rainstorms which may reduce downstream flood risk. But on farm infiltration measurements still to do as postponed this year.