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https://www.positive.news/society/how-species-spotting-took-hold-rural-community/>
"Sleeves scrunched to their elbows and rubber gloves pulled on – it was July
2023 and Yeo Valley Organic’s senior leadership team was getting a close up
view of one of dairy farming’s less glamorous byproducts. Instead of board
meetings and production schedules, the focus was on an entirely different task:
sifting through moist discs of cowpat in search of glossy black dung beetles.
It might sound like a nose-wrinkling staff away day, but the great beetle
survey was in fact part of the British brand’s commitment to regenerative
agriculture. Yeo Valley Organic’s cattle thrive on organically-grown,
pesticide-free pasture, an environment that attracts dung beetles, too.
Now, the insects are helping tell a bigger story. As the company scrutinises
the impact of its regenerative approach, dung beetles have become one of four
indicator species – alongside skylarks, adders and hazel dormice – being
surveyed at Holt Farm, the company’s home farm in Blagdon, North Somerset.
“We want to produce food with nature, not against it, and not to the detriment
of biodiversity,” says Will Mayor, the company’s farms development manager. “We
want biodiversity throughout our fields and our hedgerows, not just at the
edges. But we have to start off with a baseline. We’re asking ourselves, what
have we got on the farm?”
To answer that question, Yeo Valley Organic enlisted the help of roving
ecologist Patrick Hancock, who set about devising a long-term biodiversity
survey, using the four species to measure progress.
Besides the dung beetles – busy ecosystem engineers who cycle nutrients and
bovine parasites into the ground – Hancock selected skylarks, hazel dormice and
adders.
“There was anecdotal evidence of all of them being seen around the farm,”
Hancock explains. “Skylarks are a key species in the neighbouring Mendip Hills,
which are also a hotspot for adders. Together, these four species seemed to
represent the wider countryside – we want to see if they can survive and thrive
here.”
And so Hancock has established a network of transects – living pathways weaving
through Yeo Valley Organic’s varied habitats – from established woodland and
agroforestry plantation to stretches of lowland. Walking them throughout the
year, he builds a census of his indicator species.
Sharing his finds in a Yeo Valley Organic staff WhatsApp group soon captured
the imagination of colleagues. “People were showing photos around the office,
and it caught on,” says Mayor. “They started adding their own photos of
wildlife they’d spotted, asking Patrick to identify them. It’s snowballed into
a hub of activity.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
