Agricultural production and wildlife conservation have developed considerably over the last 40 years and, throughout this time, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group has been providing the means to draw these individual lines together.

Among those who introduced the initiative in Oxfordshire was Poul Christensen, of Kingston Hill Farm, Kingston Bagpuize, who is now chairman of Natural England. Wildlife conservation has always been an important aspect of his own farm management programmes. He was the first chairman of the Oxfordshire FWAG group.

Mr Christensen said: “Forty years ago, there was a concern among the farming community, and more generally, about the impact that agriculture was having on wildlife and the countryside.

“Farming and wildlife advisory groups were being founded by farmers and others to look at how they could introduce conservation measures to prevent this.

“The groups were led by farmers, for farmers, but not exclusively.

“They took on a life of their own and were funded by membership fees and support from the central FWAG organisation.”

Nationally, FWAG was formed following the ‘Silsoe’ Conference in July 1969 when a group of farmers and conservationists came together to write farm plans that met the economic needs of the farm while also managing its wildlife interest.

The conference had been organised by the National Conservancy Council (now Natural England), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the wildlife trusts and the Agricultural Development Advisory Service (ADAS).

During the 1970s, individual county groups were being set up and by 1981 they numbered more than 40.

The Oxfordshire group was established in 1976. “We were involved here at Kingston Hill Farm,” said Mr Christensen. “We had already been running environmental schemes for some years previously and were a demonstration farm for conservation techniques on dairy farms. We were a natural focus for some of the activity at that time.”

In Oxfordshire it was felt that such developments were important. Local people got together to form the local FWAG group and appointed its first advisor.

Joy Greenhall was Oxfordshire’s first advisor, a role which she undertook for several years, demonstrating environmental techniques to farmers and students and helping to lead walks around farms, such as that at Kingston Bagpuize.

Mr Christensen’s son David, who runs the farm with him, continues the strong link with FWAG, and Kingston Hill Farm hosted the recent annual meeting of the local branch.

Since 2001 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire have been one group.

There are offices at Long Hanborough for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and in Theale for Berkshire and particularly for the Pang Valley Project. There is a staff of six field officers and a full-time administrator.

During their visit for the annual meeting, the members were shown around Kingston Hill Farm and saw a demonstration of preparation work for the newest conservation project, on a wetland area, which was explained by Mike Shurmer of the RSPB.

“We have been doing various work with the RSPB,” said David Christensen. “I felt that generally it is easier for arable farms to adopt conservation measures, but that it is slightly more difficult on a dairy farm such as ours and I asked what more we could be doing on our farm here.

“The RSPB’s national grassland specialist, Gethin Davies, came for a walk around the farm and we discussed what else could be done and what work we could undertake.”

Two of the suggestions have been put into practice this year. One has been on the headlands of fields planted with maize, where a four-metre buffer zone alongside the hedge has been treated in two different ways to provide two sources of nesting places and food for wildlife.

A two-metre depth was planted with a special mixture of seed to produce a growth of dense grass with tussocks and the other two metres were left as bare ground for weeds to grow naturally and produce a variety of seeds that will provide winter food for birds.

Another measure has been to fence off an area of a field of red clovers so that instead of being harvested it was left to flower and set seed. This has provided immediate benefit for wildlife.

“The clover went to flower and masses of seed was set,” David Christensen said. “It has been absolutely covered with butterflies and bees.”

The field margins left uncultivated provide a dual benefit. “As well as being undisturbed areas for wildlife they create a warm little glade-type area,” Mr Christensen said.

“It becomes a bit of a suntrap, with its own microclimate in the summer time and produces a very interesting effect.

“These actions epitomise what it is all about. They are all practical means of helping wildlife and part of sustainable farming.”

Kingston Hill Farm hosts many farm walks each year, including for LEAF Sunday — Linking Farming and the Environment — on which farms are open for members of the public to come to see how their food is produced.

FWAG advises farmers wishing to take part in the Environmental Stewardship schemes. These provide payments to farmers who undertake a number of conservation measures, such as the cutting of hedges on a three-year rotation so that only a proportion is lost each year.

Hedge-cutting is restricted to the months when birds are not nesting and hedgerow crops are left to provide their winter food.

Another conservation measure is buffer zones to protect the edges of woodlands.