Farm of the Week: Producing a wildlife spectacular

WITH its miles of hedges and scores of designated conservation strips, it is little wonder that Ribitson Farms are teeming with wildlife.

The collection of farms at Walshford, near Wetherby, are owned by Patrick Dent and his family, and home to nearly 100 different species of bird.

Of course, wildlife has not chosen to make its home on his farm by accident and the strong ecological performance created is due to a lot of hard work from Mr Dent and his team.

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This hard work was rewarded earlier this year when the Farming Wildlife Action Group (FWAG) recognised Mr Dent by inviting Selby MP Nigel Adams to the farm to demonstrate all that has gone on there over a period totalling more than 20 years.

Mr Dent said it was nice for the years of work that had been put in to be recognised and he and his team of farm workers have been working together with experts at FWAG to make the farm the strong habitat that it has become today.

“We spend a lot of time and effort on this,” he said.

“We have hedges, clumps, owl strips and some 20-odd ponds dotted around the land. In all there are several miles of hedges.

“I have always been very keen on conservation; the diversity of the land, different crop regimes.”

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During my visit to Mr Dent’s farm it becomes clear that he and his team in Walshford do not look upon conservation any differently to the way they look at the holding’s agricultural production.

He has farmed there all his life and inherited the land from his father. The way he sees things, making sure a farm is strong environmentally is part of his duty as a landowner and farmer.

“Ultimately, the test of the value of a property is not just its ability to grow wheat or potatoes.

“You need a profitable farm to fund this but to view the whole farm, with the landscape, is a real joy.

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“It underpins the true value of the land, its ability to support wildlife.

“There will come a time when this farm will pass to my children and then to their children, we are not really the owners of the land as farmers, more custodians.”

The work has been carried out methodically and integrated as part of the farm’s day-to-day running and it is clear that a great deal of effort has gone into it.

Farm manager John Hepworth looks after the day-to-day operations on the farm, including the wild bird cover, the nectar mixes, and, of course, the hedges.

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The conservation planting and management is carried out by Pop Smith, described by Mr Dent as “a great naturalist”. Mr Smith has worked for the Dents for more than half a century.

The farm is very much a mixed habitat, with commercial crops sitting alongside wild bird crops.

Such varied conservation has resulted in a habitat which is attractive to a large number of birds.

During our discussion he talks about how the winter was such a difficult time for the owls that inhabit the land as it was for his crop production.

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On the farm a large variety of crops are grown, including wheat, oilseed rape, spring barley, potatoes and winter oats.

The land is also home to more than 100 oak trees and one mile of beetle banks. A great deal of history can be found there too, with coins having been found there dating back to 230AD.

“It does require a lot of maintenance and has to work alongside a profitable system of agriculture,” said Mr Dent.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the environmental achievement is the fact that the entire holding is dissected by the busy A1 motorway.

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Rather than see this as a drawback Mr Dent and his team have planted around 20 acres of woodland at either side of the motorway. During my visit we are frequently only a few yards from the road and yet hear very little traffic noise, such has been the deadening of the sound by the trees.

Indeed at one stage as I see two partridges darting across a path it occurs to me that just a short walk away lorries are hurtling along at 70mph. However, one has to strain to hear the noise.

Work began on conservation in the late 1980s when a Common Bird Survey was carried out on one of the holding’s farms on which Phil Lythe, farm conservation adviser with FWAG, produced and oversaw a farm conservation scheme in 1988.

As Mr Dent says, this has now matured and offers a rich habitat to many species of birds. It involved new hedge planting, copse planting, tree clumps and rough grass areas – in addition three ponds are being created.

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Over the course of a long-term survey of birds on the farm a total of 90 different species have been sighted.

If this survey extended to the entire estate the total is likely to be much higher.

The river on the edge of the farm is home to many different common aquatic birds such as ducks, geese, swans and waders.

The farm itself is home to all the more common birds such as mallards, teal, partridge, pheasant, skylark, wren, hedge sparrow and blackbird.

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Some of the rarer sightings however include shoveler, whooper swan, peregrine falcon, sandpiper, oystercatcher, barn owl, sand martin, wheatear, whitethroat, sedge warbler, yellow wagtail, green and spotted woodpecker and buzzard – the latter I witnessed during my brief visit.

The rich diversity of wildlife there is a testament to how much can be achieved with careful land management and should serve as an example to a farming industry currently struggling to improve its ecological standing.

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