Sustainable Arable Farming For an Improved Environment (SAFFIE)

The Sustainable Arable Farming For an Improved Environment (SAFFIE) project started in 2002 and experimental work continued until the end of 2006. When the project was conceived, arable farmers needed to optimise inputs and improve efficiency, and the UK was committed to increase biodiversity, especially for farmland birds. The SAFFIE project aimed to reconcile these pressures by developing new crop and margin management techniques for winter cereals and quantifying the associated costs and environmental benefits.

The SAFFIE project developed Skylark Plots, confirmed the benefits of adding wildflowers to grass margins, evaluated a range of in crop weed control programmes and tested two margin management techniques (graminicides and scarification) that had potential to create new habitats. The studies quantified: (a) the impact of these techniques on key species of grasses and flowering plants, beetles, bugs, flies, grasshoppers, soil invertebrates, spiders, bees, butterflies and birds; and (b) the costs of the techniques.

Key findings included the following:

Invertebrates

• Sowing a diverse seed mixture of perennial wildflowers was the most effective means of creating foraging habitat for bees and butterflies on arable field margins. Inclusion of forbs in the seed mixture resulted in increases in abundance and diversity of pollen and nectar resources, bumblebees and butterflies.
• Invertebrate species that required either an architecturally complex sward or dense grass responded poorly to scarification, e.g. planthoppers, spiders and Symphyta/ Lepidoptera larvae. In contrast, improved establishment of some wildflower species in response to scarification benefited some phytophagous invertebrates, e.g. weevils and leaf beetles.
• In scarified margins there were fewer species and lower abundances of isopods than in other margins. Species assemblages in the scarified plots consisted of species commonly associated with cropped or exposed habitats.
• Graminicide application is a practical option for enhancing the value of the large area of species-poor grass margins for pollinators.

Birds

• Creating bare ground and foraging access in wheat crops and field margins were the most important management treatments, and gave a significant (up to 4 fold) increase in bird densities and breeding territories for both field and boundary nesting species. Open ground can be achieved at relatively low cost by scarification in margins, and by creating undrilled patches in winter cereal crops.
• In wheat fields with undrilled patches, skylark territory densities were higher (particularly in the crucial late-season breeding period) and the number of skylark chicks reared was nearly 50% greater than in fields without undrilled patches.
• Wheat sown with wide-spaced rows provided some wildlife benefits (particularly for skylarks) but effects were smaller and less consistent than for crops with undrilled patches.
• For all species and species groups, bird densities and territories were consistently higher (1.3 - 2.8 times) in fields with margins and undrilled patches, than in fields with a conventional crop. This response was consistent also for Farmland Bird Index species and Biodiversity Action Plan species.
• In fields with undrilled patches and un-cropped field margins there were indications that skylarks experienced reduced breeding success and productivity compared with conventionally managed wheat. This was attributed to increased mammalian predator activity. It is recommended that wherever practical undrilled patches should not be situated within 50 m of a margin.
• For birds, margin sward content in terms of the grass/flower mix, was best managed to encourage beetles (especially Carabidae) and spiders (Arachnidae).