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Protection strategies for farmland birds in legume–grass leys as trade-offs between nature conservation and farmers’ needs

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Abstract

The study shows organic legume–grass leys to be highly attractive for skylark (Alauda arvensis), corn bunting (Emberiza calandra), yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) and whinchat (Saxicola rubreta). But due to harvesting three to four times per year, legume–grass leys can become an ‘ecological trap’. Therefore, the aim was to analyse the effects of optimized harvesting measures on territory densities and the breeding success of farmland birds and, concomitantly, on forage yield and quality of dairy farms: (1) later first cut, (2) later second cut, (3) high first cut and (4) unmown strips. Measures (1) and (2) improve productivity for breeding skylark but result in a sharp decline in the nutritional quality and net energy lactation yield (NEL) in the conserved forage. Measure (3) causes a yield reduction of about 5 GJ NEL ha−1 with no effect on quality. Due to the higher cut, grass regrowth is accelerated, and this could lead to earlier nest initiation for skylark, rendering a delay in the second cut unnecessary. Direct nest losses are reduced for all species. Measure (4) might allow whinchat and yellow wagtail to maintain territories after mowing and may increase the reproductive success of all species, with yield reductions similar to measure (3). For the first time, this study demonstrates, under large-scale practical conditions (1,200 ha), measurable benefits for farmland birds in legume–grass leys by integrating modified harvesting measures. The effectiveness and the feasibility are highly dependent on individual farm conditions; we therefore recommend the adoption of all measures into agri-environmental schemes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) for the basic funding, the Ökodorf Brodowin e.V. for their assistance in overseeing the project and the Brandenburg State Office of Nature Protection for their support of the research activities. We are particularly grateful to the farmer and his staff who agreed to let us do this study on the whole farm. We also thank the Swiss Ornithological Institute (Sempach) for its financial support to investigate the status of the whinchat at the Brodowin farm and study the effects of the bird strips in 2004 and 2005. We warmly thank Andreas and Adele Matthews, Jörg Wagner, Sebastian Koerner and several others for their incredible ability and commitment in searching nests and mapping territories. Many thanks to Gerlinde Stange, Anke Schnabel, Heike Schobert and the staff of the experimental station Müncheberg for their reliable help with the field trials, and to Johann Bachinger and Eva Reining for improving the manuscript. Moreover, we thank David Buckingham for his constructive help in particular to improve the farmland birds’ calculations. We also thank Dave Berry-Lichtenberg for correcting the English version. Thanks to two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

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  1. Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF e.V.), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374, Müncheberg, Germany

    Karin Stein-Bachinger & Sarah Fuchs

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  1. Karin Stein-Bachinger
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Correspondence to Karin Stein-Bachinger.

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Stein-Bachinger, K., Fuchs, S. Protection strategies for farmland birds in legume–grass leys as trade-offs between nature conservation and farmers’ needs. Org. Agr. 2, 145–162 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-012-0029-4

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