HEDGES - A WILDLIFE LIFELINE Even if you are not farming alpacas specifically with a wish to help wildlife, hedges provide wildlife with a lifeline, writes Vicki Agar, Spring Farm Alpacas.
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lpacas are browsers as well as grazers so will benefit from the additional diversity in their diet which hedges provide. Also, hedges are important wildlife corridors as well as providing food and habitat for many birds plus priority mammal species included in the UK’s biodiversity action plan. Hedges aid pollination, help with pest control, conserve soil and reduce flood risk. And all this in addition to capturing carbon which is a hot topic at the moment as we try to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that contribute to global warming. Hedging plants can be selected for your soil type, locality and individual aims, but I would suggest using native shrubs as we did. Spring Farm has been in Countryside Stewardship (CSS) which morphed into Higher Level Stewardship and Entry Level Stewardship. We have farmed within these schemes for the last 21 years. Under capital works within our CSS agreement, we were part funded for the cost of putting in the hedges, the first hedge of which we did entirely ourselves – not necessarily recommended! In total we have planted five hedges. The financing which benefited us is likely to remain under future Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS). An overall observation is that quite a few hedging plants are rather prickly,
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with Blackthorn (if you don’t mind missing out on large crops of sloes) being one hedging plant we would happily do without. Blackthorn has extremely long spines which can puncture alpaca feet after hedge cutting, and is present in all of our hedges that existed before we bought the farm. We hand rake the hedge cuttings as the worst of two evils so as to avoid foot problems in our alpacas. I suggest protecting new hedges by fencing them off when planted as there will still be great browsing opportunities for your alpacas as they establish.
Types of hedging plants
The hedging plants we have used are: • Cratageous monogyna, (Hawthorn) – relatively prickly, but not such that we consider it a big risk to our alpaca’s feet. • Hazel Corylus avellana – alpacas love browsing this. • Common Dogwood, Cornus sanguinea. • Field Maple, Acer campestre. • Dog Rose, Rosa canina – also prickly • Guelder Rose, Viburnum opulus – Can cause gastritis which is an inflammation of the stomach. • Hornbeam, Carpinus betulus.
