A new pilot agri-environment scheme that focuses on improving farm productivity while also delivering enhanced environmental conditions is being developed in Co Antrim. “A lot of agri-environment schemes that were open to farmers in the past were aimed at environmental gains and were not sold to farmers as ways in which they can improve their businesses,” Réamaí Mathers from the Causeway Coast & Glens Heritage Trust said.

There are currently 14 farms involved in the Heart of the Glens Landscape Partnership Scheme in the Glendun and Carey areas in northeast Antrim. The measures taken on each farm vary and are dependent on the issues facing each farm, and the interests of the farmer.

“We aren’t telling a farmer what to do. We are coming in with some expertise, but we recognise that each farmer has phenomenal knowledge about the land they have been farming for years,” Mathers said.

The scheme is based around the use of “green infrastructure” to maximise farm production. Common measures include planting hedges, trees, new grass variety mixes, catch crops and also revising livestock breeding policies. There is no funding support available in the programme for conventional drainage or capital investment.

The initiative is based on a similar locally run agri-environment scheme developed by a group of 10 farmers in Pontbren in south Wales around 15 years ago. “We are looking at the landscape in a broad sense, but at the same time looking at each farm as an individual case and asking how can we improve your businesses with green tools,” Mathers said.

Wind and water

The main issue facing upland farmers in northeast Antrim is wind and water as most farms are exposed to coastal winds and are in a high rainfall area. The focus for a lot of the individual scheme plans is strategic planting of trees and hedgerows for shelter and improved drainage.

“A hedge shelters a distance up to 40 times its height and the rate of water infiltration below trees is 67 times greater compared to bare pasture. The science is already done. We don’t need to do it again. We need to apply it practically,” Mathers said.

He maintained that strategic planting of trees in uplands will also allow Government targets to be achieved with forestry expansion and carbon storage, as well as reduce issues of flooding downstream.

He added that farm plans to date have adopted several recommendations also included in the Sustainable Agricultural Land Management Strategy, which was developed by an independent working group and presented to DAERA last October. “We want to use the environment to maximise the farm economy, and as an additional outcome, there will be massive environmental gains,” Mathers said.

Hedge planting

He pointed out that a large proportion of the hedgerows on farms in NI do not provide adequate shelter because they are too low and narrow and do not contain enough trees.

Instead, the ideal hedgerow should be 1.8m to 2.5m high and should be widest at the base and get narrow at the top in an A-shape. Rather than individual trees planted in the middle of hedges at 15m to 20m intervals, Mathers said that maximum shelter comes from planting a row of trees at tight intervals alongside the hedge.

Land eligibility rules in NI allow for a hedgerow to be 2m wide from the centre, so 4m wide overall. Mathers said that two lines of hedge plants and a row of trees can be planted within this space and then trees can be gradually thinned out as they grow and become wider at the base.

“A thick hedge will slow wind and cause it to blow over the top, then the higher row of trees will provide more shelter,” he said.

Mathers maintained that giving up a bit more of a field to allow a wider hedgerow will allow more grass to grow in the field overall, as the shelter and improved drainage provided will encourage growth, particularly in the shoulders of the year.

Funding

Initial works undertaken by farmers in the scheme were funded by the Woodland Trust. However, scheme managers have been developing measures more recently that will be eligible for funding under the wider level of DAERA’s Environmental Farming Scheme and Forestry Expansion Scheme.

When a farm plan is being designed for the scheme, water movements across the farm are digitally mapped and variations in wind direction and speed over the year are noted. The maps are then used to develop plans for tree and hedgerow planting and other measures of interest.

All farmers on the scheme are encouraged to soil test their whole farm at the start of the programme.

“The farmer walks the land with us and is brought into the process,” Mathers said.

Some farmers in the scheme are also looking at sowing alternate grass varieties and developing herbal leys, such as chicory mixes. Others have considered farm diversification including tourism, timber production and nursery plant production.

Farmer focus: Frank McCarry, Carey, Co Antrim

The main issues on this farm are wind, rain and a lack of shelter. I currently run 300 ewe lambs in a ewe lamb-to-hogget rearing enterprise but I plan to develop a breeding flock over the next few years. The farm is 120ha in size and is all classified as Severely Disadvantaged Area (SDA).

Ewes will be lambing outside and we have developed the farm plan within the scheme around that. The east wind is an issue here in the spring. It stunts grass growth and causes young lambs to perish.

At present, trees and hedges only take up 0.03% of the farm area. I am at the early stages of the scheme and am only beginning to plant. The plan is to establish 26ha of trees. This includes shelter belts, as well as larger areas on unproductive ground, and will include a mixture of native and coniferous trees.

We are also looking at developing swards with traditional grass varieties such as cocksfoot and timothy, as well as herbal leys with chicory or plantain. We plan to overseed onto existing grassland after grazing it hard with sheep and harrowing.

We are also tackling the water issue with open ditches and drains. I am happy that there is a conservation aspect to the farm plan, but that is not the main reason for becoming involved in the scheme.

Farmer focus: John McAuley, Glendun, Co Antrim

There are 350 ewes on the farm. This is made up of a nucleus flock of Lanark Blackface type ewes which are crossed to the Bluefaced Leicester. Resultant Mule ewes are kept and put to the Texel ram. Most of the farm is hill ground that runs along two sides of a glen, with ewes brought into fields on lower-lying areas for tupping and lambing.

As part of the scheme, I planted 100 oak trees throughout the mountain ground last spring. The trees were not planted tight together so that sheep can graze between them, but they should still provide good shelter in times of rough weather.

I have noticed that grass covers are always stronger in fields that are well sheltered with trees and hedges, and this also protects lambs from cold winds that blow up the glen in the spring.

Shelter

Over the past 10 years, I have planted around 1,800m of hedgerows on the farm to provide shelter. I want a hedge over 2.5m high and a thick row of trees are planted parallel to this within a double fence. Hedges are a hawthorn mix and trees planted include birch, rowan, hazel and Scots pine.

There has also been 150m of trees planted along the river at the bottom of the glen to provide shelter in the field and to slow run off into the river.