Skip to main content

A Week on the Estate: Hoiked Ragwort, Toxic Moths & Spruced Furze

This post is over 90 days old and may contain outdated information, links or references.

The schools have broken up, the harvest is well underway and the last month of meteorological summer lies before us. The long-range weather outlook remains unclear, but the short-term picture is highly changeable. Today (Friday 25th) is the warmest day of the week with a local high of 26C, but the temperature range over the weekend will be 21C-12C with the chance of scattered showers.

July has brought both sunshine and a welcome splash of rainfall. This has come a bit late for the crops currently being harvested but, as gardeners and farmers know, it’s been good for the weeds. One infamous weed currently thriving is ragwort.

Under the Weeds Act of 1959, ragwort is classified as an “injurious weed” (alongside spear thistle, field thistle, curled dock and broad-leaved dock). It spreads quickly and is toxic to grazing animals so, like all responsible land-owners, we’re keen to control it.

There is, however, another side to this story and a balance to be struck. The cinnabar moth helps us to control ragwort but can’t thrive without it. The unmissable black and orange caterpillar of the cinnabar moth feeds on and helps to control ragwort, absorbing toxins that will stay in its system throughout its life and make it unpalatable to peckish birds.

Amy Jones has embraced this balance. When she and Lauren plan lessons at The Farm School, the relationship between ragwort and cinnabar moths becomes a living, breathing and wriggling example of how land management and ecology can be balanced. With the Saturday Club, Amy puts this lesson into practice: our team of hard-working young people hoik out an awful lot of ragwort to help protect our livestock, but leave some of this toxic weed in inaccessible areas to ensure that ragwort-munching moths continue to do well. You might call it symbiosis, or you might call it good teamwork.

Here’s Amy on the Saturday Club:

“The Saturday Club’s young people come to work because they get paid and they like the fact that it’s a job. They’re building their CVs and they know it will help them to get jobs later on. They work hard (eventually!) and they like the socialising aspect too. From an educational point of view, smuggling in a bit of teaching is the key challenge.

“We try to instil basics like communication, methodical planning and getting the more confident ones to embrace leadership. I like the sense that I’m part of a positive journey. The Saturday Club is currently at capacity and we have quite a few people on the waiting list as it’s popular. If you’d like to add your young person to the waiting list, drop me a line here: amy@thefarmschool.co.uk.”

You can find out more about the Saturday Club HERE and The Farm School HERE. If you missed our chat with Amy last month, you can catch up HERE.

cinnabar moth

Staying in the great outdoors, the keen walkers among you will be pleased to learn that improvement work on the west side of Furze Close is all done and dusted. We’ve installed a new culvert under the path, and ensured that the drainage ditches are clear and fit for purpose. We’ve also improved this popular section of footpath with plenty of gravel to keep things dry and easy underfoot.

Extremes of wet and dry weather have shown us the value of preparedness and resilience. Clear and well-maintained water courses, ditches and culverts help with drainage in the wet and irrigation in the dry. Kilometres of thick, healthy hedgerow and stands of mature trees provide shade and shelter for livestock and wildlife. Soil that is minimally disturbed and protected by cover crops establishes strong root networks and resists both wind erosion in summer and wet run-off in winter.

Finally, if you’re keen to see our wonderful countryside for yourself, there are spaces remaining on the final dates of our summer tour programme.

The Heritage Lincoln Red Experience gets underway at 10am on Monday 28th July. You’ll enjoy a three-mile guided tour of our fields, woodlands and pastures with Cattle Manager Philip Taylor and learn all about the cattle and our wildlife-friendly approach to rearing them. The tour includes a hearty hot lunch featuring our very own Lincoln Red beef. Click HERE to find out more and book.

For the wine-lovers among you, the Vineyard Tour & Tasting gets underway at 3pm on Wednesday 30th July. You’ll enjoy a gentle guided stroll through our beautiful parklands to our young vineyard with fine views of the Lincolnshire Wolds. You’ll then get to savour fine wines made from the varieties you’ll see growing around you. Click HERE for more details and booking.

The weather is set fair for both dates, so cheers and we’ll see you out there!

 

If you’d like to join the conversation, we’d love to hear from you. Just head to our Facebook page HERE and comment beneath the latest blog post. As ever, thanks for your support.

 

* Cinnabar moth image by Sharp Photography via Wiki CC

 

Product added to basket