Subsidy cuts create a bigger incentive to tackle bracken removal

Speaking this week on an estate near Glenshee where a practical demonstration was given to landowners on how to tackle the growing scourge, Simon Thorp said there was evidence of bracken areas becoming more extensive.

Part of the problem has been that removing it has been a costly affair with little in the way of reward. This has been the case with the reducing profitability of hill livestock farming.

However, now that the government is removing areas of bracken, gorse and whins from the 'eligible areas' on which farmers can receive subsidy, there is a bigger financial incentive.

The plant is also a major host to ticks which parasitise sheep during the summer months and thus affect the performance of the livestock.

Although it is not a big issue in this country, where grazing options are quite wide, in some parts of the world where this is not the case livestock are frequently poisoned by eating bracken.

Professor Rob Marr, from the University of Liverpool, said there were basically two methods of bracken control for landowners. The first was cutting or even just bruising the plant and the second was aerial spraying.

Of the two mechanical options he preferred cutting the plant during the growing season as this tended to reduce its survival prospects. But even then, he said to ensure a complete kill, it could require some three cuts per season and this regime to be carried out for up to five years.

The reason for this lengthy battle is the plant has a massive underground root system which can continue to provide re-growth for a lengthy period.

For areas where cutting may not be possible, the option is just to run over the plant and the bruising alone can weaken it. However, the same lengthy regime is required to get on top of the problem fully.

The other option for bracken covered steep hillsides or inaccessible areas is to carry out aerial spraying. Nowadays, this is about the only aerial spraying that is carried out in the UK and Marr believed there were some five specialist companies operating with helicopters. Helicopters can cover a wide area very quickly but the operation is costly both for helicopter time and for the spray chemical asulox, a chemical brought out more than fifty years ago; initially to control docks in grassland.

Thorp mentioned that both bracken removal methods were eligible under the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

Both speakers reminded those present that removing the bracken was only half the job as encouraging natural vegetation to come back in was essential, otherwise the whole exercise would go back to the starting line.

Much depends on catching a bracken area early before it builds up a depth of "litter" as this trash can prove to be a major deterrent to natural re-growth.