How do you get the most return from Agricultural Nature Management? By applying it to the same field for at least three years and especially staying off the soil. This is the conclusion of Agricultural Nature Drenthe from research carried out between 2023 and 2025 on four fields near Smilde. One of the fields, which has been agricultural in nature for eight years, played a central role in this.
A herb-rich seed mixture, plants that self-sow spontaneously, nectar plants, no or as few crop protection products as possible, a beetle bank in the field and do not plow or turn the soil over. And keep that up for three years. According to Joops de Vries of Agricultural Nature Drenthe, this is the way in which nature develops best in such a field.
After three years, the fields are full of insects such as beetles, various butterfly species, bumblebees and grasshoppers. These insects in turn serve as food for breeding birds and birds that winter in the fields. The plants that are left standing still provide seeds for the birds in the winter and provide shelter for the insects.
Ecologist Gerrit Tuinstra points out the torches that still contain seeds. “These nettles look worthless, but beetles hibernate in the hollow stem.” Tuinstra did the research in the fields and that meant a lot of looking and a lot more counting of insects.
“In the first year we already saw different types of insects and nice numbers, but that grew in numbers and species in the second year and the third year. That is food for breeding bird species such as the skylark and yellow wagtail. That is why it is important that those fields remain that way for a number of years.”
Then you immediately come to lesson two from the research: if the soil is not plowed and allowed to settle, not only do various plant species develop, but insects also have the opportunity to survive and reproduce. Tuinstra: “If you plow, the larvae of insects living in the ground do not survive and the food for the birds is gone the next year.”
Story continues after YouTube video below
