Rant about hedge cutting in October

[Erichalfbee]

Between October and March
But do they all need cutting?

 

[Angularity]

So they can’t cut the hedges they own in spring because it will disturb nesting animals, they can’t cut in summer because of more nesting animals and destroying flowers/habitat. They can’t cut in autumn because it destroys winter food or flowering ivy. Then in winter it will remove food stores/berries and disturb hibernating insects/animals and if left late prevent a significant amount of spring growth. So when are they meant to do it!!!

One side one year, the other side the next. As we're not in a food production emergency situation, we can spare that little bit of productivity, IMO.

 

[thedozzer]

Last week I was at the Malvern Autumn Show in the lovely Gloucestershire countryside. I watched a large machine gobble up an entire field of Maize and shred it into an accompanying succession of trailers in no time at all. I’d never actually seen anything like it. Biofuel I guess. Pretty bad for the soil I would guess.
You can see I’m a Townie

Hi Dani you are right Its for bio fuel power stations, the farm in Cambridge where i keep my Microlight & Hangglider has about 400 acers of it last year, and they were explaining that there is a good grant for it!!

The hedge cutting is something that they are not allowed to do until October but would do a lot sooner if they could just after harvest! its a shame as years ago all the farm workers once the harvest was in would start ditch clearing and hedge laying over the winter, we never had problems with water logged fields and there was a lot more wild life!! but big powerful machinery is quicker and doesn't require a tied cottage or salary.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As we're not in a food production emergency situation

Not quite yet

 

[Curly green finger's]

I wanted to bring this thread back to life..
This autumn I've managed to get the local farmers to leave the hedges untill the end of October.
Which in turn has aided my girls to produce a ivy crop For the first time, That and me moving colonys from a Heather site to a site where they have lots of ivy.
Our ivy flow up here started on the 6th of September by the end of September we were extracting ivy honey some was even setting in the frames.

Ivy honey mixed with Heather on the same frames had to be crushed here's a pic of some ivy mixed Heather which was setting even in the jars 2 weeks later. This was the left overs after the family had breakfast and cups of tea plus spoons full. It wasn't a full jar.

 

[frankenstine]

on the hedge cutting frount a lot of hedges are now cut on 3 yrs you just need a hell of a hedge trimmer to stick it, diffrent people do it diffrent ways tho some do the road sides annually and the rest 3 yeary. for wildlife the big issue here is they get cut flat topped so all the nesting birds get nobbeled

 

[HughMann]

As a land trustee, I made the local land charity quite a bit of income from leaving the hedges alone. You used to get nice grants for doing that: Countryside Stewardship is a Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE)
More letters to MPs and this type of thing can reap large benefits.
https://blog.treesandhedging.co.uk/news-from-treesandhedging-co-uk/hedgerow-grant/