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Buffer strips: make a virtue of necessity
There is a lot to do about field margins and buffer strips with the regulations from the CAP and the Action Programme Nitrates Directive. The obligation to grow along ditches buffer strips can be turned to your own advantage by having them count for the eco-schemes.
What practical considerations are involved in using a field edge as a buffer strip? And how can you provide maximum support to the rest of your cropping plan by means of a field edge?
In the video, product manager Martijn van Overveld tells more about this:
Sowing field margins
This time of year is very suitable for sowing a perennial field margin, such as Field edge Flowery 2. This mixture is composed of hard fescue and ten types of flowers and herbs, including gypsophila, poppy, daisy and dill. Sowing advice is 32 kg/ha and the advice is to first make a false seedbed, so that weeds have less chance.
Biodiversity in perennial field margins
It may sound contradictory, but the role of biodiversity is greater in a perennial field margin than in a one-year margin. Given that short-lived species produce much more flowers, you would not expect that. But it has everything to do with the biology on the soil. A perennial margin offers space for beetles and beetles to overwinter there and also flowers earlier in the spring. That makes it attractive for the lacewing and hoverfly, among others, to settle there. After all, beetles are a source of protein and the flowers are a source of nectar, so sugar. That means that the entire diet of a natural enemy such as the lacewing and hoverfly is included in such a perennial field margin.
Sowing field margins in spray tracks
The effect of a field edge is only visible for the first few dozen meters in a plot. You could therefore consider sowing a border in the spray tracks to attract those natural enemies of the crop. The lacewing and hoverfly are the natural enemies of the peach aphid and the thrips in onions.
Exception for seed potatoes
But for seed potatoes, a side note must be added. Because research by the Arable Farming Industry Organisation has shown that the hoverfly and the lacewing are in fact spreaders of bacterial disease. So try to focus the field edge mixtures on the edges of the plot. Incidentally, the field edges can be safely used against potato-Y virus.
Preventing virus transmission from field margins
Perennial species in field margins with winter-hardy species can form a green bridge in the overwintering of plant viruses, such as the beet yellowing virus. Some perennial field margin mixtures contain host plants for this virus. When sowing these margins, always choose a safe composition, such as LG Field Edge Flowery 2.
Want to know more about how field margins fit into your cropping plan? Ask your crop specialist:
