Hedges – A wildlife lifeline

Even if you are not farming alpacas specifi cally with a wish to help wildlife, hedges provide wildlife with a lifeline, writes Vicki Agar, Spring Farm Alpacas.

Alpacas 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 fl ood 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 fi rst hedge of which we did entirely ourselves – not necessarily recommended! In total we have planted fi ve hedges. The fi nancing which benefi ted 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, 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 infl ammation of the stomach. • Hornbeam, Carpinus betulus.

• Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa – a great hedging plant, but we would not include it anywhere that alpacas are likely to graze next to; it becomes too risky and may be stood on by alpacas after hedge cutting. • Holly, Ilex aquifolium – leaves and berries have a mild toxicity to horses and presumably therefore alpacas, we have a few dotted around our hedges • Beech. Fagus sylvatica – slow growing, but we have included these too.

We also purchased bamboo canes and spiral rabbit guards for each 'whip', plus dipped the root system of each plant in root dip mycorrhizae. A tip would be that you are wasting your money if you buy larger individual plants as they will be readily caught up by smaller, cheaper 'whips'.

How to plant a hedge

For our first two hedges, we laid down a semipermeable membrane along the length of the hedge line. We made a cut in it for the hedging plants to be planted through. Then we pierced the soil with a spade and rocked the spade back and forth creating an opening before slotting the root system into the hole and firming it in.

The membrane is optional, but can prevent a hedge getting overwhelmed before becoming established. Otherwise, herbicides could be used, but we preferred the non-chemical option. Each individual plant had a bamboo cane inserted beside it and a spiral rabbit guard placed around both. Alternatively dig a hole. Place your first hedging plant in the first hole and backfill with the earth from the second and so on. This is a labour saving way of only having to move the earth once. Tread the earth in firmly as you go. Plant your hedging plants twelve to fifteen inches apart in staggered rows.

Planting a second hedge

Coppicing hornbeam trees

Laneway from coppice re-growth

Alpacas cannot be introduced into a field without fencing off your new hedge as they will browse it and enjoy doing so to your dismay! The distance that you place your fence from the hedge can vary depending on whether you are going to be getting someone in to cut your hedges for you. It might be worth a phone call for advice from your local farmer.

For our second and subsequent hedges, we did not use a membrane, but mulched with alpaca poo wherever possible and the growth of the hedge was infinitely more rapid!

Hedge management

After planting your hedge, suggested management strategies can vary. Hedges are dynamic and constantly changing, therefore ongoing management is important. Hedges can be both under-managed and over-managed. Cutting the tips off the hedge rather than cutting the hedge back too far, is beneficial and allows the hedge to thicken out. Berries and seeds grow on last year’s growth so cutting your hedges in the spring is preferable to cutting in the autumn.

All hedges will ultimately need rejuvenating whether by laying or coppicing. Cutting a hedge every three years and cutting it back to 10cm above where the last cut was made will mean that it will only have grown a metre in 30 years. Our CSS agreement specifies that we only cut our hedges a maximum of every other year.

Hedge laying is a great way of rejuvenating a hedge and especially, for example, one which has become full of gaps at the bottom. It is a specialist job and involves cutting the stem deeply enough to bend it over at a slant to the ground. This encourages new shoots to fill out the hedge helping it to become stock proof again if that is required. The fencing on either side of the hedge will protect a hedge from becoming too heavily browsed which can cause birds nests to become visible and therefore vulnerable to predation.

Allowing some of the hedging plants to grow on to form trees along the length of the hedge can provide extra natural shade for alpacas within the fields on either side.

Coppicing is an ancient form of woodland management in approximately a seven-year cycle. Groups of trees or hedging plants are cut back to ground level or “stools” thereby increasing the longevity of the trees involved. We cut a laneway of old hornbeams back some 15 or so years ago. We were concerned at the time since we were told that they had probably been left to grow for about 70 years, that it might kill them so we cut them at about 4 feet high rather than to ground level. They all survived and have now grown to form a green tunnel like walkway which provides us shade on our alpaca walks. It is now one of the prettiest places on the farm.