Sustainable farming awards – Finalists announced

23/06/2008 09:28:47 An arable and livestock farmer from Fife in Scotland has been chosen as the first Scottish winner of the RSPB's new Nature of Farming Award thanks to his innovative measures to help wildlife.

Patrick Bowden-Smith, who farms 185ha in East Neuk, Fife, is combining profitable farming with innovative wildlife-friendly management techniques that are reaping benefits for a broad range of species including grey partridge, corn buntings, yellowhammer, barn owls, lapwings, curlew and skylark. Otters, water voles and spawning sea trout, as well as amphibians and a host of aquatic invertebrates are also to be found on the farm.

Sea trout spawning
With help from the Government's Countryside Premium Scheme (CPS) and the Rural Stewardship Scheme (RSS), Patrick has restored watercourses and wetland habitats to a condition which allowed spawning sea trout to return three years ago for the first time in 60 years. This has been achieved by constructing fish ladders and removing obstacles to upstream movement in the farm's Dunino Burn, as well as hydrological controls that have allowed him to create spate conditions that enable fish to move upstream to newly created spawning beds.

Nutrient trap
A sustainable approach has also been adopted across the farm to improve it's environmental footprint. Using recycled parts scavenged from scrap yards, Patrick has built his own solar and wind electricity generators to power electrified stock fencing and run a water pump to power a nutrient trap that removes potentially harmful fertilizers and chemicals from surface run-off.

Wildlife corridors
New trees and hedgerows have been planted to link all habitats around the farm whilst also providing shelter and cover for livestock and wildlife, whilst some unproductive areas have been given over to form uncultivated field and water margins that support insects and beetles.

As the Scottish winner, Patrick has received a cheque for £200 and will now represent Scotland as a finalist in the UK-wide Nature of Farming Award against three other regional winners to compete for £1,000.

Patrick said: "Since we started to introduce these conservation measures aimed at complementing and benefiting the farming operation, we now see much more wildlife on the farm every day. I look at my farm as a renewable resource that, as well as being a business, is somewhere that we have to live and should enjoy doing so. If we leave it in a better state than we find it then I think we have done our bit.

50 year project
"Presently we are in about year 15 of what is a 50 year vision for the farm, so we've hardly scratched the surface of what we ultimately hope to achieve. We want to do much more nutrient budgeting and different types of soil management, as well as introducing multi-use water systems, alternative types of seeding and versatile crops. Everything needs to have two or three different types of uses in order to get the maximum benefit for the business and the environment."

Stuart Housden, director of RSPB Scotland, said: "I am delighted that Patrick is the Scottish winner of this award, because he is championing the vital conservation role farming can play. From the perspective of many different birds, and some of our scarcer mammals and even fish, management on the farm is exemplary and has provided rich and healthy habitats. This has been achieved by taking a whole farm approach, and the results are extremely encouraging."

Four finalists
The four shortlisted farmers are Henry Edmunds, who owns a mixed organic farm in Wiltshire; Michael Poland, who farms livestock on the Isle of Wight; Patrick Bowden-Smith, who has a mixed farm in Fife, and Peter Davies, whose mixed organic farm is in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The next stage, voting, is down to the public, which can be done online at http://www.rspb.org.uk/farmvote and by post, with every voter being entered into a draw for prizes, including a free subscription to BBC Countryfile magazine.