Mild winter and spring weather led to extremely high grass growth, leading to a good year for farmers with livestock and for making silage or hay.
But the grass growth meant a difficult year for warmth-loving insects, including common meadowland butterflies.
Our nature specialist Matthew Oates says: ‘Another year of unsettled weather has seen extraordinary grass growth – good for livestock and hay making, but bad for many plants and insects which like short turf grassland, like the common blue butterfly.
‘Our rangers have had to work closely with farmers and graziers to get grazing levels right for these plants and insects.
‘In many places it’s been a struggle, but at a handful of places like Somerset’s Collard Hill – home to the large blue butterfly – graziers have triumphed.’
2016: a year of grass growth
A mild winter, cold spring and mild, wet weather in May and June led to very high grass growth in early summer.
Grass grew at a rate almost a third faster than in previous years, according to Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board figures.
Rampant grass growth was good news for farmers making hay in many parts of the country.
- At Packwood House, Warwickshire, twice the number of hay bales were collected compared to the previous year.
- Tenant farmers Roly and Camilla Puzey made 25 per cent more silage on Saddlescombe Farm, South Downs, as last year.
- However, on the Hafod y Llan estate, Snowdonia, intermittent rain in early summer meant that farmers struggled to make either hay or silage.