Stop 7 Beetle Banks.

This board could be installed in lots of locations, because we have lots and lots of Beetle Banks in our fields.

A Beetle Bank is a permanent strip of native wildflowers and grassy clumps that grow alongside our crops. The tussocks and dead hollow stems provide shelter for all manner of insects, spiders, small mammals and birds. They make bug hotels out of the messy margins around each plot and provide important sources of food and nectar right through the year.

Spaced roughly every 50 metres, Beetle Banks allow beneficial invertebrates to quickly move back into the space in between. So when we turn our crops in at the end of the season, the insects that protect them are never far away. They play a key part in managing pests and diseases in our crops.

Beetle banks get mown from time to time to allow the different plant species to prosper, which in turn makes them better homes for a larger range of species.

You will pass our irrigation borehole at this point. A deep well into the chalk provides much needed water during the dry summers we get in this part of the country. The tractor pumps water from here to all parts of our fields. Please keep well away from the machinery.