GLAS thread

Lady Haywire

Base price wrote: »

Problem we have is there are no rushes in our LIPP fields - I don't know if that is a good or bad thing

Usually a good thing! I wouldn't complain anyhow

Green farmer

Capercaillie wrote: »

Scheme is voluntary, nobody is forced into it. You can also exit the scheme if you want.

No, it’s a scheme that aimed at supporting and rewarding people like me, who choose to farm in a more environmentally sensitive way, who try and use less perticides, chemical fertilizers and run the land in a less intensive way. However I feel the scheme has a flaw in it, ie topping dates, that is encouraging the spread of noxious weeds.

80sDiesel

[font=graphik, Arial, sans-serif]"Cut thistles in May, they'll grow in a day[/font]
[font=graphik, Arial, sans-serif]Cut them in June, that is too soon/[/font]
[font=graphik, Arial, sans-serif]Cut them in July, then they will die."[/font]
[font=graphik, Arial, sans-serif]I topped mine last week. None had gone to seed yet. Guess it depends on location.[/font]

Capercaillie

Green farmer wrote: »

No, it’s a scheme that aimed at supporting and rewarding people like me, who choose to farm in a more environmentally sensitive way, who try and use less perticides, chemical fertilizers and run the land in a less intensive way. However I feel the scheme has a flaw in it, ie topping dates, that is encouraging the spread of noxious weeds.

Date is already too early for many wildflowers/wild grasses to go to seed and for species like skylark/meadow pipit to raise sufficient young.

80sDiesel

Capercaillie wrote: »

Green farmer wrote: »

No, it’s a scheme that aimed at supporting and rewarding people like me, who choose to farm in a more environmentally sensitive way, who try and use less perticides, chemical fertilizers and run the land in a less intensive way.  However I feel the scheme has a flaw in it, ie topping dates, that is encouraging the spread of noxious weeds.

Date is already too early for many wildflowers/wild grasses to go to seed and for species like skylark/meadow pipit to raise sufficient young.

Wasnt the traditional hay making the 3rd week of July or something ?

Danzy

White Clover wrote: »

Glas isn't compulsory.

Not yet but I firmly believe that we are heading to a future where large parts of it are compulsory.

I don't have a problem with that.

Capercaillie

80sDiesel wrote: »

Wasnt the traditional hay making the 3rd week of July or something ?

End of July for East I believe, but in places like mine in Mayo August.

Capercaillie

Danzy wrote: »

Not yet but I firmly believe that we are heading to a future where large parts of it are compulsory.

I don't have a problem with that.

Payments should be results-based. Farmers who have best quality habitat, best biodiversity, best water quality should get higher payments. Those who have poorer habitats, poor biodiversity should get less payments.

ganmo

Capercaillie wrote: »

Payments should be results-based. Farmers who have best quality habitat, best biodiversity, best water quality should get higher payments. Those who have poorer habitats, poor biodiversity should get less payments.

And who’s gonna count the wildflowers and wildlife? To get a representative sample the ground would need regular surveying

Capercaillie

ganmo wrote: »

And who’s gonna count the wildflowers and wildlife? To get a representative sample the ground would need regular surveying

Info here on results based agri-environmental scheme in leitrim.
https://rbaps.eu/

tanko

Capercaillie wrote: »

Date is already too early for many wildflowers/wild grasses to go to seed and for species like skylark/meadow pipit to raise sufficient young.

Ah dont worry, the way farming is going in this country there wont be any young people in large parts of it let alone any skylarks or pipits etc but there’ll be lots of young Sitka Spruce.

KatyMac

Capercaillie wrote: »

Info here on results based agri-environmental scheme in leitrim.
https://rbaps.eu/

Most of my fields look like those pics (except the LIPP which is covered in dying rushes at the moment) - bring it on. I had a student doing a survey in one of my meadows a couple of years ago and she went into raptures about the amount of flowers and insects I had. I came across a huge butterfly this morning that I've never seen before - it was orange and easily twice the size of what you'd normally see.

Mrs cockett

KatyMac wrote: »

I came across a huge butterfly this morning that I've never seen before - it was orange and easily twice the size of what you'd normally see.

I would love to see it, have seen very few butterflies this year

80sDiesel

I have a lot of birdfoots trefoi and red clover is reappearing.

Capercaillie

KatyMac wrote: »

Most of my fields look like those pics (except the LIPP which is covered in dying rushes at the moment) - bring it on. I had a student doing a survey in one of my meadows a couple of years ago and she went into raptures about the amount of flowers and insects I had. I came across a huge butterfly this morning that I've never seen before - it was orange and easily twice the size of what you'd normally see.

Great stuff! Only fair that meadows like yours get better payments. As it is you have people in GLAS who have rubbish habitat getting same money as somebody with brilliant habitat, not really fair.

Base price

tanko wrote: »

Ah dont worry, the way farming is going in this country there wont be any young people in large parts of it let alone any skylarks or pipits etc but there’ll be lots of young Sitka Spruce.

Unfortunately I have to agree.

Base price

Capercaillie wrote: »

Payments should be results-based. Farmers who have best quality habitat, best biodiversity, best water quality should get higher payments. Those who have poorer habitats, poor biodiversity should get less payments.

I would suggest that farmers with poorer habitats should be encouraged with extra payments to improve the biodiversity of their farmland via a results based assessment.

80sDiesel

Base price wrote: »

tanko wrote: »

Ah dont worry, the way farming is going in this country there wont be any young people in large parts of it let alone any skylarks or pipits etc but there’ll be lots of young Sitka Spruce.

Unfortunately I have to agree.

I will be planting 1600 native irish trees and doing a traditional hay meadow next year ( with scythe). So i would not be so sure.

Base price

80sDiesel wrote: »

I will be planting 1600 native irish trees and doing a traditional hay meadow next year ( with scythe). So i would not be so sure.

Ah but you are a exception.

The day I see a young lad/lassie picking up a scythe, let alone knowing how to use it I will eat my hat

A cow called Daisy

Have some land in LIPP with a lot rushes on it. When they cut, can I bale them? Book says I can't make hay or silage but this 'technically' is neither. People buying them for bedding I'm told.

Water John

Mac, looked at a fine wall chart of butterflies that The Irish Examiner sent out a few weeks ago. The most likely large orange one is called a, Comma.
Its a lovely poster with 34 Butterflies of Ireland by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. www.BiodiversityIreland.ie

Base price

A cow called Daisy wrote: »

Have some land in LIPP with a lot rushes on it. When they cut, can I bale them? Book says I can't make hay or silage but this 'technically' is neither. People buying them for bedding I'm told.

I reckon that by bailing them you are allowing the grasses to grow and reestablish thereby benefiting the biodiversity of the land.

Lady Haywire

I licked one of our LIPP about a month ago- it rained the following day so thats a good timeframe! And while the rushes are going now there's loads of insects and birds. Even got mobbed out of the field by a couple of pipits yesterday so assume they've a nest in it. If I'd topped instead of licked they wouldn't be in the field. So can see benefits for the licking as well, as long as it's done responsibly and correctly.

80sDiesel

I have 2 sections with rushes. Only ever saw those white butterflies.

Will be planting goat willow there in Autumn. Not only will it take out alot of the moisture but the goat willow has the second highest pollen count of any plant so should attract the bees. Will be putting down some felled Scotch pine logs ( drilling holes in the wood) to encourage solidarity bees.

Birdnuts

80sDiesel wrote: »

I have 2 sections with rushes. Only ever saw those white butterflies.

Will be planting goat willow there in Autumn. Not only will it take out alot of the moisture but the goat willow has the second highest pollen count of any plant so should attract the bees. Will be putting down some felled Scotch pine logs ( drilling holes in the wood) to encourage solidarity bees.

Theres actually several "White" species, Wood White, Green Veined White etc.

Birdnuts

This is the catastrophe we have to roll back - its from the UK but the story is pretty much the same over farmland here.


https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/rural-life/wildflowers-and-insects-under-threat-due-to-vanishing-meadows-in-uk-experts-warn-37086747.html

80sDiesel

Birdnuts wrote: »

Theres actually several "White" species, Wood White, Green Veined White etc.

Thanks. Are they worth taking care of? I can always leave one site alone ? Is their natural habitat rushes ?

Edit: Had a quick research and they like cover but I always leave parts of the meadow alone to ensure the lifecycle of other invertebrates. Can always just top the seeded part of the rushes if that though is their natural home.

Birdnuts

80sDiesel wrote: »

Thanks. Are they worth taking care of? I can always leave one site alone ? Is their natural habitat rushes ?

The female of the Orange Tip is white too - that and the Green veined White like that type of habitat

80sDiesel

Birdnuts wrote: »

The female of the Orange Tip is white too - that and the Green veined White like that type of habitat

I would have noticed an orange tip butterfly.so probably not that.

Thepillowman

Since joining glas I have noticed a large increase in butterflies, cinnabar caterpillars do a great job on ragwort also damsel flies and grasshoppers in abundance. Downside are they amount of horseflies b*#*ards.