River Usk catchment: farm interventions
Working with citizen scientists across the catchment to better understand the health of the river Usk
Working with farmers within the Crai catchment to implement and understand the impacts of natural flood management (NFM) on water quality
Working with farmers to install farm interventions (hedges, change of grazing, ponds) on their farms to gather information so that we can quantify whether they are successful in improving water quality.
The context
Local communities, including farming communities, can feel more connected with the local ecosystem by monitoring the health of local rivers.
To understand issues like water run-off and nutrient run-off to improve water quality, we collect data from farms to understand how the land is working. By engaging directly with farmers, we’ve collaborated to share learnings and tools like mapping and natural flood management opportunities.
Who
Wye & Usk Foundation works with farmers and landowners within the Crai catchment. This is a predominantly sheep and beef farming catchment with two horse establishments. The Wye and Usk Foundation has engaged with 26 of 29 farmers and landowners, with 23 receiving farm reports. Six of the farmers are involved in the Crai Farmer Focus group.
Partners
- Cardiff University
- Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
- Natural Resources Wales
- Gwent Wildlife Trust
Collaborators
Where
Crai, Powys
Wet weather walkovers
Streamside fencing and new gateway have been created to improve water quality
Newly created shleter belt – Stump Up For Trees supplied the trees and volunteers to help plant. This will help filter water run off and create shelter for livestock and link 2 woodlands up for biodiversity.
In river habitat creation – pleaching hazel into the river will protect the river bank from erosion whilst creating habitat for fish and invertabrates.
VESS scoring
Soil sampling in the Crai
A reseed with a Multi Graze 24 seed mix from FD Seeds. We also applied lime to various fields and reseed with herbal leys. We will be carrying infiltration testing on these fields to obtain data on how different forage leys work for water infiltration.
Alterative water sources have been installed so the river or streams can be fenced off to livestock which allows for created bank protection and on streams, where water can be slowed down by regrowth of the understory and protect the banks of the streams.
Methods
- Hydrological flow maps and wet weather walkovers
- Soil sampling – P, K, Mg, Organic matter and pH
- Soil VESS Scoring – Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure
- Mapping the farm and ID potential Natural Flood Management (NFM) interventions
- Creation of a farmer focus group, with education days, peer-to-peer learning and group meetings
- Award grants to install Natural Flood Management (NFM) interventions on farm
- Infiltration testing
89%
Farmers in the area engaged
26
Wet weather walkover and farm reports completed
50
On-farm interventions installed
Restoration
This evidence-led and collaborative approach has led to over 50 interventions. For example, ponds have been created and, in this case, reinstated and fenced. The banks have been reseeded with flower meadows harvested from the farm, which will allow for biodiversity and infiltration of water.
Innovations
Visualisation – hydrological flow maps have been created for the whole Usk Catchment – these can now be shared with farmers and other organizations.
Peer-to-peer learning – farmers learn from doing and seeing. We took the farmers to see a sheep farmer (who was recommended by one of the group) so they could see mob grazing with sheep in mid-Wales (mob grazing is a term used to describe ultra-high density grazing. Another way to think about this is to mimic wild herds’ grazing. This means many animals are relatively close together on a small piece of land for a short time). It was a great visit to learn from others!
Farmers also attended the Niels Corfield ‘Weatherproof Farming’ workshop (shown left).
Data to action – Data gathered will feed into the Usk Catchment Market, which is a new approach to reducing flood risk.
Collaboration leading to impact
We have collaborated with Stump Up For Trees, a charity that supplied plants for hedge and woodland creation. We provide fencing around the new hedge or woodland, and Stump supplies the tree plants and volunteers who carry out the planting. This has been a wonderful collaboration for all involved.
We have been working with the NRW project – 4 Rivers 4 Life, to help highlight successful interventions and point them in the direction of suitable farmers keen to be involved in projects.
Information learnt from the farmers is being fed into the Usk Catchment Partnership (UCP) working group, where we can give voice to the farmers and give feedback to the farmers on what we are learning from the UCP and the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, who host the UCP and where the Crai catchment sits within.
We have held a training day for farmers with Niels Corfield – Weatherproof Farming. The aim is for farmers to understand how their soils are working, that most issues are caused by compaction, and that they can be reversed through changes in grazing management. This was well received and has made those who attended think about how to change their grazing management.
We have been conducting Double Ring Infiltration tests on the land within the Crai using different management styles. This is to understand how the soils work when saturated and in high rainfall situations. The data gathered from this is being used to set up the Usk Catchment Market, which aims to pay for good: the good is rainwater infiltration during storm events to reduce flooding lower down the catchment.
Quotes from farmers…
“The advice offered by WUF, the coordination and support of Sian Mercer and the current and planned interventions have allowed us to improve our farmland and also provide an enhanced habitat for wildlife, flora and fauna. Without support and funding from WUF this would not have been possible.”
– H & K Jones, Crai farmers
“Working with the Wye and Usk foundation has really been helpful in looking at our farming methods and the effects on water retention and quality. As an organic farmer soil is very important. Sian has helped in understanding soil structure and we look forward to seeing the benefits of liming and planting of herbal leys on water retention, environment, and of course livestock production.
It has also become more evident that there are many more ways to have an impact on water retention and quality, and that working in a group, farmers can learn that there may not be a one size fits all solution but small changes can have a significant impact. As a farmer I hope that we are able to continue to work with WUF to see if we can make a difference.”
– PM, Crai farmer
Supporting material
In the media
| Wye and Usk (Instagram video): #CaSTCo video describing interventions: working with Stump Up For Trees, planting Alder. |