Improved grassland is a phrase used to indicate that the farmer has been using various techniques to make the grassland more productive for his animals - maybe using fertilizers and pesticides, maybe sowing particular types of grass, maybe simply cutting the grass for hay before any wild flower seeds have set and sown naturally. The result is grass that is "better" for animals, but less interesting to look at or environmentally, as it has less variety in terms of grass and wild flower species. Gardeners with property that borders these fields frequently encourage the farmer to cut the grass early, specifically to stop weeds (like thistles in particular) from setting their seeds that can blow into gardens. Understandable, but does have the unintended effect of eliminating the more interesting wild flowers as well. Thistles are very popular with the stunningly beautiful Goldfinch, as well as many other seed eating birds.

There is probably a scientific definition of Improved Grassland, but we have used a highly unscientific process - just looking at it, and if it looked moderately even and fairly rich grass, we classified it as Improved. If anyone wants to carry out a more scientifically rigorous study, we would be delighted

Back to Land Use
Back to Environment Home