I wasn’t planning on planting any trees…

This small dairy farm of 133 acres has been in our family for 3 generations. We’re situated not far from the Denbigh Moors in north Wales, and the yard sits at 750 feet above sea level. Our land is made up of mostly pasture. And along the stream and small river, we have two small woodlands of eight acres in total.

Over the past 27 years, I’ve planted 11 hedgerows, and it helped that they were partly funded by a local council biodiversity scheme. Where our field boundaries were patchy and the cows could walk through, the hedges made managing rotating the herd through their grazing better, by making our fields stockproof. You can’t beat a good thick hedge for being stock-proof, especially when it’s fenced off to save it from being eaten. No heifer, who thinks the grass is greener on the other side, is going to try jumping that. I also planted one hedge as a wildlife corridor between the two woodlands. I enjoyed the work back in the day, and it made a nice change during a time of year that usually feels like Groundhog Day, with the same daily routines throughout a long winter.

So, I thought my days of planting saplings were done until chatting with my milk recorder in the parlour got me thinking. She’s really keen on farmland nature and a healthy farmed landscape and told me about part-funded packs of hedge plants and trees available to buy from the Woodland Trust.

I used to graze sheep in our woodlands but sold the last of the flock in 2019 in order to concentrate fully on the cows. Following this move, I fenced the woods off – fetching heifers back from where they shouldn’t be, having escaped up through the watercourses was getting to be a pain. With the new fencing in place, the woods went from being somewhere I’d previously looked to see how much grass had been grazed, to being somewhere I liked spending time and noticing empty pockets of space between clumps of trees.

I suppose being a typical farmer, and not wanting to rush any decisions about the farm, it wasn’t a surprise that I thought about the idea of planting trees for long enough this last autumn into winter, that I missed the application window to get some of the part funded packs. One evening, I googled the price of oak saplings and was surprised by how cheap they were. I decided I’d like to plant some on an open patch above the wooded stream, to replace the ones felled for making fence posts by my Grandfather.

We already have a mix of healthy Oaks, Hawthorn, Ash and Rowan in the woods, and so trusting that new trees of the same species would also grow well, I ordered 50 oak saplings. They didn’t take long to plant and it felt good, replacing what my Taid had used. I didn’t consider it a big expense, and it is making an area of the farm which doesn’t suit livestock, a fuller woodland again – it’s somewhere I enjoy spending time and going for a walk. It feels good to have done something for nature and climate change.

Back when I’d ordered the oak trees, I told my son and I wasn’t expecting the really positive reaction he had. He told me the following quote “Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” This was a surprise and made me smile.

I’m now planning on converting a 9-acre field of long-term rye grass mix into herbal ley. I’ve been keeping an eye through social media on how resilient it is on other farms in north Wales, and I want to see how it compares to the rest of my grazing. I’m hoping to see health benefits in the cows, what with the herbs being deep rooting. I use Long-term PRG anyway, and also hope the increased clover in the sward with help to reduce nitrogen fertiliser inputs.

These small changes have given me something new and interesting to monitor, I’m looking forward to seeing the benefits to the herd, and the land and seeing more pollinators and birds.

Image by Raymond Lloyd-Williams

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