Old methods 'aid' farm's wildlife

The number of thrushes is said to have risen around Ty Brith farm

A conservation body is claiming success in helping a mid Wales farm to boost wildlife in its fields and hedgerows.

Ty Brith farm near Welshpool is farmed using traditional Welsh methods with the backing of the Tir Gofal scheme.

It claims that using horses to cut the hay has helped increase the numbers of birds such as bullfinches and thrushes.

A spokesman said: "It is a great example of how a variety of wildlife can benefit with a return to more traditional farming."

The 130-acre grassland farm in eastern Montgomeryshire is owned and farmed by Dr Jonathan Kahn and his wife Anna.

it is a great example of how a variety of wildlife can benefit with a return to more traditional farming Paul McCullough

They are backed by the Countryside Council for Wales' (CCW) farmland management scheme Tir Gofal.

The CCW has said it believes the Tir Gofal scheme, which pays farmers to return to more traditional ways of working the land, has halted the decline of the country's most threatened species.

The Kahns use traditional horsepower to take in the hay as the small, steep fields of the site are surrounded by hedgerows which would need to be removed if they were to bring in more modern machinery.

Fenced off

The hedgerows are managed by traditional periodic re-laying to maintain a thick, dense barrier.

Mechanical cutting is used only every three years, in late winter, to leave food and shelter for wild farmland birds.

CCW Tir Gofal Officer Paul McCullough said the numbers of bullfinches and thrushes are already increasing at Ty Brith.

Open watercourses - important feeding and breeding sites for insects and small mammals such as bats and water voles - had been fenced off, he said.

And he added that hedgerows had been planted with hazel to encourage the spread of the rare dormice population from the surrounding woodlands.

Ted Jones (right)

He said: "Although some of the features existed before Ty Brith was accepted into the scheme, it is a great example of how a variety of wildlife can benefit with a return to more traditional farming."

Anna Khan said: "A lot of the work we are doing is turning the clock back and we are lucky to be able to call on the memories and expertise of an old hand.

"Ted Jones, now 83 was born on this hand and he has been able to give us some advice about how things used to be done here such as hedge laying and taking the hay with horses.

"We are also working to revive the orchard that was originally planted by his grandfather."