We need a wilder grazing stewardship scheme
The package of agri-environment support available to farmers remains complex, contradictory and in places utterly baffling.
A very obvious ‘big win’ - very low intensity free-range grazing of wilder livestock across large grazing units - remains absent.
The option could be pretty straightforward, with a per ha (or square km) payment:
rationalise fencing by removing, as far as possible, internal fencing, paying for ring-fencing of larger grazing units
pay an add-on to neighbouring farmers who collaborate to ring-fence even larger areas over multiple land ownerships
presumption in favour of natural regeneration on arable farmland to be converted to a large wilder grazed area
support assisted natural regeneration on parts of the ring-fenced area that is species-poor grassland, including brash piles and tree-shrub seedling planting in small, widely-spaced clumps
include rare breeds cattle and ponies that either remain on site throughout their lives or are moved around as part of a gut-parasite management regime (avoiding anti-parasitic chemicals unless demonstrably impossible)
Where justified, small-scale patch introduction of herbaceous wildflower seed, just to kick-start recolonisation of the all-important wildflower component
What might emerge from such a simple, non-prescriptive option? Open, flower-rich shrublands in the first two to three decades, followed by a gradual shift towards wood pasture.
Livestock is a key element here and so is harvesting high quality meat for human consumption. So such an option might be attractive both to livestock farmers wishing to de-intensify and simplify their farming, and to those contemplating rewilding.
Elements of this are available within the Sustainable Farming Initiative and emerging Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. But Defra, bless them, have rendered such schemes not quite right for doing what I suggest above. It’s a gap that many farmers want to see filled.