Catch Crop

There is a move to try and do something about the environmental impact caused by modern farming needs. To an extent it's useful as good PR for the agricultural industry: voluntary, as emphasised on the main sign, wildlife conservation, environmental and ground protection.

As with so many things there are at least two sides to the story.

The Blip is of a test field initiated by the Bavarian State Agricultural Board on a local farmers land. It's of 13 different types of catch crop seed mixtures, some of which may be harvested for cattle forage but many will eventually be ploughed in as natural fertilizer. Much of the land around here is on drinking water collection areas where artificial manufactured fertilizers are banned.

As a beekeeper I of course welcome this move but wish that it was not needed in the first place but like most of us, I also want cheap bread, milk ........

I am sure there is a lot more than can be done to help both the environment and the farmers who are under great pressure to produce more and cheaply. Just for instance, rape is a great source of honey (500kg/hectare) but only so long as it's not sprayed with insecticide when the bees are active. So a farmer who sprays the pre-flowering plants in the late afternoon will avoid spraying flying bees who during this cooler time of year go home early. And if he ceases the practice of spraying during the flowering period where there is a limited risk of damage from a particular beetle, he will find that the bees pollination work will more than compensate for the beetle damage by the added pollination rates.

I did actually check out some of the individual plants in the seed mixes and was quite amazed at how beneficial they can be, especially for improving the quality of the ground. With a bit of planning there are enormous savings and benefits with a thought out crop plan.

On all sides we need to work together and ultimately we end-users have to consider what is important to us - quality or price. Like most I face this dilemma every week as I reach for the cheapest milk, butter... And the role of the food manufacturers has to be srongly questioned - how much of the premium price for branded foods, identical in quality to own brands, is passed on to the farmer and how much to advertising firms, fat salaries etc etc.

For the record the individual signs show the seed mixture name, what seeds (%) are included, quantity (kg/ha) what time of year it can be sown, how much it costs (€/ha).