Explained, the Yorkshire Dales scoring system that can keep meadows diverse

It's not every working day you see something very special and rare.
Ragged robin, one of the species recorded at Dale View Farm. Picture by Paul Shaw.Ragged robin, one of the species recorded at Dale View Farm. Picture by Paul Shaw.
Ragged robin, one of the species recorded at Dale View Farm. Picture by Paul Shaw.

Yet that’s what I could tell the family after coming through the door one evening last month, after visiting two of the finest traditional hay meadows in the Yorkshire Dales.

Most of the meadows in the Dales are far less diverse than they used to be. They have been improved through the application of fertiliser and sprays. A meadow with more grass and fewer flowers means more fodder for the stock.

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‘Flower power’ compensation payments for keeping meadows unimproved have been around for decades.

But they have a bad name. The current national scheme is regarded by many farmers as unworkable.

In Wensleydale and Coverdale, a new approach is being piloted. Nineteen farmers have entered bits of land into a scheme which tries to make the most of their experience and knowledge, rather than tie their hands.

There are no prescriptions – on cutting dates or stocking densities – and payments are made according to results.

The more species-rich the meadow, the higher the payment.

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To see how it worked in practice, I went to a training event for farmers in the scheme at Dale View Farm in Thornton Rust.

The farmers each had a clipboard with the scheme scorecard attached.

The scorecard contained a list of 34 positive plant species and eight negative plant species. An orchid, for instance, scored four points, while nettle, as a negative species, scored minus two.

Into the meadow we went, walking in a straight line diagonally across the field and stopping ten times at equal distances apart.

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Each time we counted the flower species around our feet, ticking them off on the scorecard.

Straight away we found two of the most important indicator species for hay meadows: yellow rattle and sweet vernal grass, which is what gives hay its sweet smell.

The meadow seemed to get better and better and at the final, tenth stop, we saw a pink pool of ragged robin beside a purple patch of meadow cranesbill. In the end the total meadow score came to 200+ points, triggering the highest payment of £371 per hectare.

As the field in question was just over a hectare, it would net the farmer a payment of about £400.

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Could this sort of scheme be part of a post-Brexit farm policy for England?

The farmers in the scheme are certainly very supportive of it, although they remain circumspect.

In typically blunt fashion, one farmer said that if you had a small Dales farm, all the costs were going up and the only way to stand still was to grow more grass.

If people wanted to see these hay meadows, he said, then they had to be prepared to pay for them.

He is absolutely right about that.

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Yet something tells me that if traditional meadows are to be conserved or restored, then we’ll need more than public money to fund farm payments.

We’ll need farmers who are willing to count and protect the flowers and the birds, and think that it is not daft to do so.

Andrew Fagg is a media officer for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.