Species-Rich Meadows Confirmed at Babers Farm in Dorset

Our conservation team is delighted to share their findings from recent grassland surveys carried out at Babers Farm, a beautiful 130-acre site in Dorset.  

Thanks to careful stewardship and traditional farming practices, this site meets the criteria for species-rich lowland meadow habitat, a rare and valuable ecosystem. 

Babers is grazed by Hereford-cross cattle and Zwartbles sheep, a rare breed originating from The Netherlands. These animals belong to local farmer Jim Strawbridge, who has played a key role in maintaining the diverse and balanced habitat. The landscape also includes woodlands, ditches, and ponds, supporting a wide range of wildlife.  

With help from Sue Clark, who led the wildlife monitoring effort at the charity for many years, as well as monitoring herself, Helena and Ruth assessed 10 quadrats (1 metre squared) arranged evenly across a damp meadow called Red Close in a 'W' shape to get a representative picture for the field. 

For each quadrat, Helena, Ruth and Sue identified all the plant species inside the square frame, including grasses, sedges, rushes (collectively known as graminoids) and wildflowers.  

For each species which was present in the quadrat, they also estimated its percentage cover within the square. In addition to this, they recorded the percentage cover of bare ground, bryophytes and thatch and noted the sward height for each quadrat. 

They recorded 39 species in total with an average of 15.9 species per quadrat.  

“We’re really pleased this meets the requirements for species-rich lowland meadow habitat,” said Ruth. “We only surveyed the one field but walked through another lovely meadow (also species-rich) and saw lots of wonderful species.” 

Highlights

Some highlights from the day included seeing common spotted orchids, early marsh orchid, pyramidal orchids, greater bird's-foot trefoil, grass vetchling, and corky-fruited water dropwort. 

“This is a lovely meadow, and we did expect it would be species-rich but it’s nice to have up to date accurate data on it. The grasslands at Baber’s (excluding the Harmshay fields) haven’t had any fertiliser or other artificial inputs on them for more than 30 years, which has contributed to creating these ideal conditions for a whole host of floristic species,” added Ruth. 

The following species which were recorded in the quadrats are indicators of lowland meadows on neutral soil: