Front Bank field - a thread

This is the breast (local word for banking) on the Front Bank

It’s a 1.2 acre part of a 6.2 acre field and is bloomin steep and awkward

Because the rest of the field is a meadow which is cut two or three times a year for silage, livestock only comes onto the breast here for very short periods or after the final cut of silage. This allows other species to flourish.

It’s alive with life!

*sound on

There’s masses of birds foot trefoil, plantains, wild red clover and pignut, which the scatty la’ll chimney sweeper moth absolutely love!

Back when my dad was a teenager (about 1965) they used to haytime the breast. Mowed with a finger-bar mower on the top side of the tractor, scaled it by hand with a fork and then raked down onto the flat by the hedge to bale.

Hugh (farm worker) in front & My grandad behind

The row was that big by the time they’d raked it down to the bottom that the bales were touching coming out.

Grandad forking every last bit into the baler & Uncle Arthur (the waller in yesterday’s tweet) behind

But times change, areas like this are no longer, the labour involved in baling it doesn’t make it worthwhile anymore.
Cattle won’t graze it either, so we manage it for the benefit of wildlife instead.
It’s still very much part of our farm, diverse & full of rough edges