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There
has presumably, down through the ages,
always been conflict between footpath
and
bridleway users over their condition. In
the
beginning it was probably between walkers,
drovers,
horse riders and horse drawn carriages
and carts.
Today
we can add farm machinery, trail
motorcycles, mountain bikes and all terrain
four wheel drive vehicles.
However
we can now add a very useful addition to the
ever growing list and it’s Pigs! On the
Knepp Castle estate in West Sussex the owner
Charlie Burrell has entered 3600 acres of
the estate into his own giant ‘re-wilding’
experiment,
part funded in Countryside Stewardship. So
far this has included fencing the boundaries
and introducing Longhorn cattle, Exmoor
ponies and Tamworth pigs whilst Roe and
Fallow deer were already present. All
the animals are free-ranging and during the
few years this exciting project has been
running it appears to have thrown up as many
questions as answers.
For
example, the two families of Tamworths on
their daily roaming excursions regularly
spend time, to the annoyance of all walkers,
enthusiastically ploughing up an ancient
public footpath that crosses a very large
field. The
field went into Countryside Stewardship in
2004 after several years in cereals, rape
and rye. It was then sown with a recommended
grass mixture which had wildflower seed of
several species added by the owner.
At
present the pigs are only working to a very
shallow depth and literally just turning
over the turf and exploring the grass roots
in a similar fashion to humans cutting and
lifting turf. By watching the pigs digging
it appears that they will sniff first and
then turn over the turf and are eating earth
worms and presumably large grubs and other
unearthed pig delights.
Having
already acquired a reputation as a ‘way
out speculator’ by many of the (so called)
ecologists in our midst it’s exciting to
be able to speculate on the significance of
the pigs digging being confined solely to
the ancient footpath.
Does
the pigs work mean that the worms, which we
could call the ‘flagship species’ for
all the soil inhabiting micro-organisms,
have to yet to move even a few centimetres
into the arable reversion and if so
why?
As
a general principle we have to include other
soil inhabiting micro-organisms because it
might be naïve to only use large visible
earthworms in isolation from the rest of the
ecosystems of the little known world of the
soil.
Perhaps
in some ways a contradiction to the last
paragraph but large visible earthworms could
in fact be an indication of a soil ecosystem
that is operating. Also can they help us to
begin to consider the ‘world of the soil’
and
it is not derogatory to state that the vast
majority of us find the ‘world of the soil’
as bewildering and incomprehensible as the
galaxies in the universe.
Therefore
if the worms have not moved into any of the
arable reversion does it mean that the
complex ecosystem and fungi, bacteria,
invertebrates
and all the other organisms have not moved
either? This begs the question why? On
the face of it the grasses and wildflowers
appear to be growing. But do they have their
essential
mycorryhzal fungal associations? Are they
merely hanging on without what are
considered essential mycorryhzal fungal
relationships?* Without their fundamental
relationships are the plants just soaking up
the inorganic nitrogen applied over the
years and unable to collect other minerals,
nutrients and above all trace elements
normally supplied by the fungi and bacteria.
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Scientists
in our Food Agency proclaim that non-organic
food is just as nutritious as Organic. This
is an absolutely ridiculous statement and
fundamentally flawed because the fundamental
relationship between fungi, bacteria and
other micro-organisms and plants in the
uptake of nutrients and trace elements is
ignored or literally not understood by them.
One could assume that they have come to the
conclusion that the addition of pesticides,
antibiotics and other veterinary product
residues, as administered to plants and also
secreted by animals, are useful additions
and compliment any natural lacking elements.
One
could go on to conclude that from the Food
Agency pronouncements that such products as
Arsenic, Cyanide and all the other nasty
pesticides dreamed up by man are nutritious
and also of course kill all known diseases
in man!
We
should not forget the veterinary profession
either for their obvious motivation in the
health of animals and some cases the
subsequent profit but not the health of the
overall environment. To date how many
veterinary products are tested against the
environment? Antibiotics secreted by animals
kill fungi and bacteria in the soil and
water. The effects of wormers are well known
above ground but what about the world of the
soil? Are they persistent? How do they
degrade? When I see a sign saying ‘Horse
Manure 50p a bag’ I want to change it to
‘Toxic Waste’ for today horse pooh
seldom breaks down, why?
We
have a buzz word now which is ‘biodegradable’
and all pooh in the past obviously was, and
often disappeared very fast. It’s not
unreasonable to say that at least 50% of
pests and diseases in grazing animals are
transmitted in the pooh. So it must follow
that non-biodegradable pooh (dung) means fat
vets! Dare we even contemplate a link
between persistent pooh, TB and badgers?
As
mentioned before we know so very little
about what our animals rely on and that must
include ourselves – the soil – without
it we
perish.
If
we start to consider the soil and say to
ourselves ‘If I do this or with the
animals what might happen to the soil
ecosystem’? Then we are beginning our
education.
Don’t
forget next time you have to use a vet ask
them if the veterinary product been
tested against the environment.
Ted
Green Fungi First
*
It
can generally be assumed that mycorryzhal
fungi recede and are usually lost to plants
when inorganic and other chemicals are
applied.
If
only pigs could speak!
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