Hedges are cut every other year except on road sides when it is every year to remove obstruction to sight lines etc. Hedge management also includes replanting dead sections of hedge and gap filling. Bobp I don't think you understand what goes on and have been watching too much Packham
No, I watch what goes on in my backyard and understand perfectly - better than you I suspect. There is - was rather - a hedge along a byway where I walk my dogs every morning. It was comprised mostly of fairly large hawthorn trees up to about 20' high and was set back around 2-3 metres from the track. In February 2019 the farmer had this cut down for the length of well over 800 metres down to about 1.5 metres. No earthly reason for it as it was not interfering in anything. There used to be robins, chaffinches and yellowhammers nesting there. Nothing nests there now. Silent Spring.
To compound the problem what does the d*ckhead farmer do in January 2020? He gets his flail mower out and goes & gives what's left another good bashing. That's 11 months, glueman, not two years.
I understand perfectly what goes on. He gets a grant for hedgerow management and if it isn't spent and preferably overspent by the end of the financial year he won't get it again. There are several gaps in the hedge so why isn't he spending some of the hedgerow management fund on planting up to fill those gaps? I'm really quite glad he hasn't because that would only have resulted in a lot more plastic being dumped into the environment.
Glueman writes about replacing dead sections of hedge. How do they get dead in the first place? They get dead because some a*se beats the life out of them with a flail mower. People on here have gone on about how rabbits and deer kill young trees by chewing the bark, or it the case of deer, thrashing against the tree to remove the velvet from its antlers. Contrary to popular opinion this does not always kill the tree. A walk through any patch of woodland will show young trees where deer have been removing the velvet and the tree is still there growing away. Next time anyone sees a flail mower at work go & take a look at what has been done. It won't be a light trim, that is for certain. There will be large branches ripped apart probably because the guy in the driving seat just loves to see shards of wood flying.
There is another track that I walk on every morning now since Farmer decided to make the original byway all but impassable so he can dump his manure pile in the adjacent field. Along that track there are a few remnant hawthorn bushes. There are about a dozen spread out along the track over about 500 metres. Even those odd individual bushes get the treatment. WHY? What is the point other than to make work and claim the money. It is a waste of time and diesel to go along there, so there must be a very good reason for it and income is the reason.
There are undoubtedly many good farmers, but equally there are a good few that are blo*dy awful and don't give a toss for the environment. As they all receive money from the public purse - our taxes - then I think we are entitled to be certain that the money is being used properly, and if not, should be withdrawn.
If glueman is so certain I don't know what I'm talking about then let him get down here as soon as this Covid cr*p is over and I'll show him. Failing that he can pm me his email and I'll send him a photo or two.
