Farmers can often be criticised for cutting down hedgerows. Pictures often appear on social media condemning the action.

However, it is important to know that in 2023 and beyond farmers will be paid to cut down hedgerows in order for these hedgerows to improve and rejuvenate.

This practice is known as coppicing and can be confused with hedgerow destruction.

Under the new environmental scheme ACRES, farmers will be paid to coppice some of their hedgerows. Coppicing means that the hedge will be cut right at the butt or at the ground and allowed to grow back up.

Drastic measure

It’s quite a drastic measure, but is done to rejuvenate hedgerows. When done to the right hedge, this measure can work very well, as the stumps will allow many more trees and stems to grow and form a thick hedge.

The hedge then needs to be cut each year, just above the growing point, to create a thick hedge that provides shelter, habitats, food, carbon storage and stock proofing.

Coppicing works best on what Teagasc’s Catherine Keena describes as “toilet brush hedges”. These are hedges that were not pruned or reached a certain height and were topped.

Once topped, the hedges thickened out and so are thick at the top, with a long stem on the bottom and looks like a toilet brush.

These hedges will benefit hugely from coppicing. Whitethorn and blackthorn trees are very suitable for coppicing, as they do well when pruned.

Hedgerows are a hugely valuable asset for biodiversity, but some also need to be managed. It is important to have a mix of hedgerows on farms from topped to escaped to rows of trees. All of these hedgerows provide different habitats.

Information campaign

An information campaign of some sort may be needed to inform the general public about coppicing of hedgerows. This may go as far as TV adverts or adverts online and in print media.

The last thing we need is a barrage of pictures filling up social media next season complaining about farmers cutting down hedgerows when they are actually trying to improve the hedgerow.

It is also important that farm advisers and farmers listen to advice on coppicing to ensure that they carry out the measure correctly.

Here is some advice on coppicing hedgerows.