Case Study: Bare ground for butterflies and moths

Author: Tim Pryor-Lettley
Farm: Matterley Estate, Hampshire

Matterley is a 2400 acre mixed farm with 200 dairy cattle and 1100 acres of arable including wheat, barley and oilseed rape. The estate ownership and farm management has been in the Bruce family for three generations. Peveril Bruce is a member of the Winchester Downs Farm Cluster group. The farm business is diverse and the estate supports a large music festival each year, motorcross, tank driving, cross country runs, cycling events and a large game shoot.  The farm has been in Higher Level Stewardship since 2014.

Aims:

As part of the Section 106 agreement for continuing to run the Boomtown music festival at the site, a decision was made to create a butterfly scrape to establish a breeding area for native Lepidoptera such as the small blue butterfly and the striped lychnis moth. This opportunity arose from a longstanding relationship with Jayne Chapman at Butterfly Conservation. The way in which the work was delivered in partnership with Jayne demonstrates the importance of good relationships and local conservation officers.

Creating the butterfly scrape. Image (c) Jayne Champan, Butterfly Conservation

Management:

The location and size of the butterfly scrape was determined by the local authority. Although when we undertook a site visit with Jayne, she suggested an alternative and more suitable location. We also agreed to make the scrape significantly bigger than the specification. The field earmarked for the scrape is north facing. The optimum location for a butterfly scrape is a warm south-facing slope. To remedy the aspect of the field we scraped the topsoil down to the bare chalk and banked up the soil on the bottom to create a level or near south-facing part to the bank. The work was undertaken in October 2017 and will be seeded by South Downs National Park Authority with a mix of kidney vetch, rock rose, dark mullein, knapweed, scabious and bird’s-foot trefoil with local provenance seed.

In terms of effort, the 20m x 5m scrape took about half a day to create and the ongoing management will be about an hour a year. This work will involve ensuring that grasses and weeds don’t encroach or dominate the scrape. This will be controlled using a herbicide around the edge and spot treatment where necessary.

Small blue butterfly. Image (c) Andrew Cooper, Butterfly Conservation

Achievements:

It’s too soon to say whether or not the bank has worked as it is yet to be seeded. We hope that it becomes home to breeding populations of the target species. However the continued benefits from having a great working relationship with the Butterfly Conservation officer are tangible. Jayne has helped steer us to think differently about lots of activities on the estate. These include teaching us how useful even a small amount of bare chalk is for creating habitat and that the areas around the farm where we expose the chalk do not need to be 'tidied up.' We now understand that disturbance (even just a very small amount) is a key part of sustaining biodiversity. We now look at our activities quite differently.

Working with Butterfly Conservation has also led us to thinking about different activities in a more pro-biodiversity way. An example is the creation of a new drinking water reservoir that will be landscaped to help encourage a variety of species. Jayne has given us such friendly, positive and practical advice and has provided leaflets to educate us about the importance of different species.

Creating the butterfly scrape. Image (c) Jayne Chapman, Butterfly Conservation

Advice for other farmers:

It’s really easy to do something very small that results in big, positive impacts. Building a relationship with a local conservation officer can help with many areas of the farm management. They aren’t scary and they do understand the needs of the business whilst offering practical ideas on how to tweak things so that more benefits for farm wildlife can be created.

For more information on the striped lychnis moth and the small blue butterfly use these Butterfly Conservation species factsheets.

Header image: Striped lychnis larva (c) Andy Foster