Ryedale Natural History Society - Mowthorpe July 2002

Trip to ADAS High Mowthorpe 16th July 2002

[Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of this trip]

Eight members enjoyed an interesting day at High Mowthorpe. The 437-hectare farm lies above the northern escarpment of the Yorkshire Wolds at a height of 100-200 metres above sea level and is arable apart from approximately 61 hectares of permanent grassland in three steep-sided small dales. Experimental work now being carried out reflects the trend to more environmentally-friendly farming with about a quarter of the farm now being organic.

We were given a general presentation on the work of ADAS by Sue Ogilvy annd David Green, and then shown round some of the arable areas (unfortunately not the permanent pastures due to the presence of suckler stock).

Highlights of the trip were:

The organic crops, which are wildlife-friendly but with ADAS working on how best to control the colourful weeds!
Work being done in conjunction with the BTO and RSPB to see if wider row spacing and occasional scrapes in wheat are beneficial to breeding skylarks.
Seeing the wildlife at a large landscaped reservoir – water being unusual on the Wolds.

As we were not able to visit the permanent pasture we did not have a long botanical list but 173 species of plants have been recorded on the farm. We also saw only sixteen bird species – typical for a high and exposed arable area, but the list included corn bunting and yellow wagtail, plus redstarts down by the reservoir probably moving through on migration.

Tom Denney 16th July 2002