Farm management in relation to environmental and wildlife assets

The development of decision support tools is an important aspect of attempts to help organic farmers to live up to their ideals of taking the greatest possible regard to the interests of wildlife and the environment. More information on how organic farmers integrate these objectives into farm management decisions can give depth to our understanding of the need and demand for a formalisation of these tools for organic farming. This project is therefore designed to improve the opportunities for organic farmers to integrate environmental and wildlife interests into farm management. The project consists of three subprojects:

Integration of wildlife and environmental interests into farm management

The way that different organic farmers integrate wildlife and environmental interests into farm management decisions is being analysed with the help of qualitative interviews and questionnaires, and then generalised according to farming styles. The attitudes and thinking of organic farmers regarding the use of decision support tools that incorporate wildlife and environmental interests is being investigated alongside the testing of a multiobjective decision support system. Furthermore the attitude of organic farmers to current indicators of the quality of nature is being examined and analysed in relation to their understanding of the basic values and rules of organic production.

Indicators of effects on ecological landscape assets

The aim of this sub-project is to evaluate and develop indicators of natural assets on the farm, in, respectively, cultivated and uncultivated areas (i.e. small biotopes). The effect of the presence of field weeds on insect fauna is being documented through the analysis of a controlled experiment and via the establishment of a database of the literature, the aim being to produce a prediction of the potential diversity amongst insects from a knowledge of the different varieties of weeds. To find a qualitative indicator of the natural assets, investigations of the herb flora in small biotopes, and the presence of butterflies on organic farms are being undertaken. Studies are also being conducted on eight organic farms concerning the distribution of birds during winter in relation to small biotopes and the adjoining cultivated areas.

The attitudes of different farm managers to, and their success with, weed control

A key question relating to the impact of farming on natural assets is the attitude of different farm managers to, and their success with, weed control. The significance of their disposition to weeds in organically managed fields has therefore been studied from existing data, in order to expose any possible relationships between the control of weeds and different farming styles. An analysis of weeds at eight organically run cattle farms showed that the choice of crops is of paramount importance for the occurrence of weeds, and that characteristic weed profiles are found at individual farms which can be explained by the type of farming practice. The extent to which this can be generalised with regard to farming styles is expected to be examined later.

Summary
Publications

Project title
II.9 Farm management in relation to environmental and wildlife assets

Project leader
Niels Halberg, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science, Department of Land Use,
Research Centre Foulum, P.O. Box 50, DK 8830 Tjele.
Tel: +45 8999 1900, Fax: +45 8999 1200
E-mail: Niels.Halberg@agrsci.dk

Project participants
Egon Noe and Karsten Rasmussen, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science
Jens Reddersen, National Environmental Research Institute