CAMPAIGN FOR THE FARMED ENVIRONMENT ANNUAL REPORT – QUALITY ASSESSMENTS AND VERIFICATION MONITORING MARCH 2011 Ruth Laybourn Naomi Jones Simon Conyers Nigel Boatman Food and Environment Research Agency Sand Hutton, York, YO41 1LZ CONTENTS Executive summary ......................................................................................................................... 6 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 12 1.1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 12 1.2 Monitoring of voluntary measures ..................................................................................... 12 2. Methods ............................................................................................................... 14 2.1 Selection of farms............................................................................................................. 14 2.2 Condition assesments ...................................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Summer condition assessment ................................................................................ 17 2.2.2 Autumn condition assessment ................................................................................. 18 2.2.3 Winter condition assessment ................................................................................... 18 2.3 Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 19 2.3.1 Vegetation Community Analysis .............................................................................. 19 Countryside Vegetation System (CVS) .................................................................................. 20 Ellenberg’s Indicator Values ................................................................................................... 20 Competitor, Stress-tolerator, Ruderal characterisation (CSR) ................................................ 20 2.3.2 Value for other species ............................................................................................ 20 3. Results ................................................................................................................. 22 3.1 Overwinter stubbles (C7a) that meet red box and green box. ........................................... 22 3.2 Green box considerations ................................................................................................. 22 3.3 Summer condition assessment ......................................................................................... 26 3.3.1 Common species ..................................................................................................... 27 3.3.2 Species richness ...................................................................................................... 29 3.3.3 Vegetation community analysis ................................................................................ 31 3.3.4 Competitor, Stress-tolerator, Ruderal characterisation (CSR) .................................. 33 3.3.5 Flower abundance ................................................................................................... 35 3.4 Autumn condition assesment results ................................................................................ 37 3.4.1 Crop species composition and food resource in sown wild and game bird mixes ..... 37 3.4.2 Weed species present in sown mixes ...................................................................... 42 3.4.3 Farmland birds and wider biodiversity ...................................................................... 44 2 3.4.4 Height of vegetation ................................................................................................. 45 3.5 Winter condition assessment results................................................................................. 49 3.5.1 Resource protection ................................................................................................. 49 4. Discussion ............................................................................................................ 54 4.1 Wider Biodiversity............................................................................................................. 54 4.2 Farmland Birds ................................................................................................................. 55 4.3 Resource Protection ......................................................................................................... 55 4.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 55 5. References ........................................................................................................... 57 Appendix 1. Species lists .............................................................................................................. 58 Appendix 2. Report of spring assessments, September 2010 ....................................................... 68 3 List of figures Figure 1 Percentage cover of bare ground and litter in summer, with standard errors. .............. 27 Figure 2 Number of species and number of axiophytes present on different measures, with standard errors. ..................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 3 Number of plant species of value as bird and butterfly larval food on different measures, with standard errors. .............................................................................................................. 30 Figure 4 Percentage of species on each feature that were potentially beneficial to birds and butterflies, with standard errors. .......................................................................................... 31 Figure 5 DCA plot of axis 1 (horizontal) against axis 2 (vertical) of vegetation community composition for summer botanical assessments .................................................................... 34 Figure 6 Live flower abundance (per 300 m2) across relevant measures, with standard errors. 36 Figure 7 Total flower abundance (per 300 m2) across relevant measures, with standard errors. 37 Figure 8 Seed resource and crop plant density ......................................................................... 40 Figure 9 Seed weight per m2 for C9 areas assessed ................................................................. 40 Figure 10 Seed weight per m2 for C10 areas assessed ........................................................... 41 Figure 11 Number of seeds per m2 in C9 areas ....................................................................... 41 Figure 12 Number of seeds per m2 in C10 areas ..................................................................... 42 Figure 13 Crop plants present in C9, with standard errors. ........................................................... 44 Figure 14 Mean bare ground present on measures, with standard errors. ............................... 45 Figure 15 Mean percent weed cover of measure providing potential food for birds (i.e. evidence of flowering or seding), with standard errors. .......................................................... 45 Figure 16 Mean height of vegetation within measure, with standard errors. ............................. 46 Figure 17 Variation in mean height for C9, with standard errors. ................................................... 46 Figure 18 Variation in mean height for C10, with standard errors. ................................................. 47 Figure 19 Variation in height within each example of measures C9 and C10 ........................... 48 Figure 20 Width of buffer strips (measures present as blocks are excluded), with standard errors. ................................................................................................................................ 49 Figure 21 Penetrometer readings from compacted and uncompacted areas (from measures where compaction was present), with standard errors. .......................................................... 51 Figure 22 Cover of vegetation, bare ground and litter in February/March, with standard errors. .. ................................................................................................................................ 52 4 List of tables Table 1 CFE Voluntary measures with target environmental benefits ............................................ 13 Table 2 Summary of measures revisited during the condition assessments .................................. 14 Table 3 Condition assessments and timing undertaken for each measure (Boatman, 2010 - scoping report) ....................................................................................................................... 15 Table 4 Range of summer assessments for each measure ...................................................... 17 Table 5 Soil texture groupings .................................................................................................. 19 Table 6 Measurable green box considerations (adapted from CFEFarmer’s Guide) ................ 23 Table 7 Most frequently recorded species and groupings with % frequency of sites at which they were recorded, % abundance within sites at which they occurred and % top cover across all features. Shaded species