Late Winter at Fenny Free Range

What do we get up to when the days are short, when the crops are drilled and the Christmas poultry rush is behind us?

Apart from hiding inside from the cold, we lay hedges!

Hedges require regular management to ensure they are healthy and are use to both us as farmers and wildlife. Cutting hedges as infrequently as possible is best, about once every 3 years (however it is important to note that some hedges need cutting more regularly, particularly by roads for safety). This allows the wildlife to make the most of them, birds use them for nesting in the spring and small mammals take shelter in them during winter. When hedges mature they can become 'leggy', they then start to offer less protection to wildlife of all sizes. When they get to this stage we can lay them to reboot the hedge and restart the cycle. The best time to do this is late winter, when the hedges are dormant and the birds haven’t started to nest yet.

Cutting and laying hedges is a craft that has been practiced for centuries in this part of the world, long before modern fencing wire was able to keep livestock in. Although it looks destructive, laying hedges creates a living stockproof barrier that gets stronger and more dense over time as the hedge regrows. Hedge laying has fallen out of fashion as it is very time consuming and back breaking work, especially if your 6'5" like me. Luckily with the support from the government though agri-environment schemes we were able to lay 300m of hedge this winter. By doing so we can create better habitat for wildlife, create a healthier hedge, and build a living livestock barrier, although the mountain of paperwork required to receive the grants seems to take longer than the hedge laying itself!

The stakes that you can see in the photo are part of the local midland style of hedge laying called 'bullock style'. Hedge plants are cut halfway through at the base, and then pulled over to an angle of roughly 30 degrees. These are known as 'pleachers' The weaved willow along the top of the stakes are binders and these help to keep the hedge strong and stable while it is regenerating. Its not so important for us as we don't currently have any cattle, however the stakes do offer some more protection from the more adventurous lambs trying to find their way through. The grass is always greener on the other side as they say!

The grants also allowed us to replant some of our hedges around the fields, hedges offer great benefits to our crops and soil health aswell as wildlife. Look out for our handiwork along Drayton lane, and fingers crossed it grows up over the next few years.

As the evenings finally start to draw out, and the idea of working without 4 layers on becomes a possibility we start to prepare for spring. For us this means tending to crops, new lambs and ducklings. I will reveal more about this next time.