Tower and Town, July 2015

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What Are The Farmers Doing Up There In July?

July is a time when most of the work on the arable crops eg spraying/fertilising etc has been completed and we can sit back and let the crops mature gently in the July sun, ready for the ensuing harvest.

It’s a time when the grain stores are being thoroughly cleaned out in preparation for storing the newly harvested crops. Combines are being serviced, and teams of students are starting to arrive to help supplement the core staff for the harvest period.

As well as this, hay making is in abundance - especially when the hay is being made on some of the older turf from the Downs. This matures somewhat later than some of the more modern grass varieties.

There are also a number of other things taking place up on the Downs, not least the Barbury Castle Horse Trials which start on Thursday 9th July and go on for four days. This event is now in its 12th year and it attracts some of the biggest names in eventing from around the world. The natural ‘going’ of the downland turf makes Barbury a highlight in the eventing calendar - and it’s an event not to be missed.

The Marlborough Downs are also part of the larger ‘Nature Improvement Area’. This was started three years ago by local farmers, who realised that if they worked together in developing environmental initiatives, then the sum of their combined efforts far exceeded any individual contribution. For example, we now have over forty farmers signed up as members across the Downs, and they are all working together to improve the wildlife in the area alongside mainstream agriculture.

We’ve put in fifteen dew ponds up on the downs over the last three years and the effect on the biodiversity has been utterly amazing. The increase in numbers of buntings, linnets, and tree sparrows, has been truly extraordinary. As well as this, by linking the dew ponds with ‘wildlife corridors’ of tussocky grasses, it has provided an ideal feeding ground for the various barn owls, little and short-eared owls which are now common up on the Downs.

We are surrounded by some wonderful countryside and this is being managed for many purposes, not least food production, but it is also a healthy countryside where farming and the environment are being managed together for the benefit of us all. Aren’t we lucky to live in such a beautiful area.

Chris Miusgrave