Category: Farming and Wildlife

  • Red Squirrel

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | June 15, 2020

    Some years ago we were contacted by the Cistercian monks who own 600 acre Caldey Island off the Welsh coast. Once farmed, it was now falling into desuetude and the few monks still there were getting elderly. We first arranged to rid the island of Brown Rats (Rattus norvegicus) by systematic poisoning over two winters using pest control contractors. Then, through the…

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  • Climate change on the farm

    By The Bevis Trust In , | June 2, 2019

    The recent protests and awareness of climate change are what the Bevis Trust is all about. How can we somehow reconcile the needs of producing food for an ever-expanding human population while at the same time reducing carbon emissions and improving biodiversity? It’s all very well talking about it. How to actually do it? Here…

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  • Caldey Red Squirrels

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | April 28, 2019

    I did an interview with Jemima Childs last week for her university project. Jemima is the daughter of Ben who manages Caldey Island. Great news to hear that our Red Squirrel colony that we started two years ago has now reached about 30 individuals. Some of them are getting tame enough for visitors to see…

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  • DEFRA and General Licences

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | April 24, 2019

    DEFRA has rescinded the General Licence to control a number of pest species such as crows, following a legal challenge by a pressure group ‘Wild Justice’. Now DEFRA are busy sorting out a new legal route which no doubt will entail more red tape and a wider disregard of the law in the countryside. Crows…

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  • Ponds and Trees

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | April 24, 2019

    We have had a manic year at the Bevis Trust. During the summer drought Steve managed to get the heavy digger into places that are normally too soft to support the machine. The ponds that he managed to open out need a lot of replanting and this work will continue for a season or two…

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  • Storm Callum

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | October 16, 2018

    Callum certainly made his presence known over the weekend with many branches and trees down locally. At Ricketts Mill water was the issue. The rivers came up with alarming speed and flooded much of the area around the lakes. This of course put pressure on the fences but Neil and his team had built them…

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  • More New Ponds

    By The Bevis Trust In , , , | August 21, 2018

    With the help of Steve and his digger we have made a couple of new ponds this summer and they are now starting to fill. It will be some time before they are naturalised and it’s a fascinating process to watch. To speed nature along a little we have sown some pond-edge wildflower mixes and…

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  • Spring Update

    By The Bevis Trust In , , , | May 8, 2018

    It has been manic on the farm for weeks. The tree planting was completed in time, with 18,000 mixed hardwoods gone in. We cut a new track across this north bank and while it is raw is a good time to get new plants established. So we have transplanted bluebells, primroses and snowdrops from other…

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  • Cold Weather

    By The Bevis Trust In | March 11, 2018

    Here in West Wales we were late getting the snow and quick to lose it. No so good for sledging and making snowmen but it has been great for bird spotting. Over the past few weeks the farm has become a haven for many species we see either rarely or fleetingly. Redwings and fieldfares have…

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  • Changing Times

    By The Bevis Trust In | January 8, 2018

    Michael Gove’s speech at the Oxford Farming Conference this week gives a clearer picture of where things are heading in in the farming scene. While he proposes to continue Single Farm Payments until Brexit, the transition will move away from area payments towards environmental benefits for the public good. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/farming-for-the-next-generation?utm_source=emailmarketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=copy_weekly_news_22_december&utm_content=2018-01-05 Of course we have seen…

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