Rural Affairs: a way of life under threat?

Mr Hugh Oliver-Bellasis, Vice-Chairman of ‘The Game Conservancy Trust’, authority on farming in Britain and liveryman in the Merchant Taylors' Company, came to talk to the Sixth on Rural Affair and how a "country person's view is different to that of a townsperson".

The main debates in British farming today are over land use and conservation of farming land, organic and genetically modified crops and whether we should look to import food or to keep growing our own for heritages’ sake and “national security”. For most of us this was unfamiliar territory and Mr. Oliver-Belassis gave a fascinating talk.

A farmer in Britain should farm according to the optimum sustainable yield. Stable wildlife populations have reproduction and death rates that balance each other. This density dependence maintains population stability. When hunted, a population is reduced, but this frees-up resources which reduces other mortality and increases the birth rate. Therefore regularly hunted populations stabilise at lower levels than unhunted ones, but are more productive. The maximum sustainable hunting rate is achieved when the largest number of animals are breeding at the fastest possible rate. This is the maximum sustainable yield . Harvesting strategies are usually set at a rate lower than this  - the optimum sustainable yield.

Game managers try to enhance productivity by providing better habitat and more food, and at the same time reduce the mortality due to predators and disease. In this way managed game populations are very productive and often have higher breeding stocks than populations that are not managed and not shot.

This style of farming has many implications for government and how it sees farming in Britain. typically,the priorities of the government conflict with those of a farmer under ‘ The Game Conservancy Trust’. A simple example being the ban on fox hunting which from above is simply regarded as being a method for achieving the optimum sustainable yield.

Whatever the outcome of these debates, it was an enthralling and informative lecture.

Keval Dattani, Upper Sixth