Birdsong and biodiversity

It’s not just about the cheese judging at the International Cheese and Dairy Awards. The ICDA trade Friday morning conference, which they held at the Stafford County Showgrounds, the day after the trade day and at the start of Love Cheese Live, the consumer event, offered much to ponder. My personal highlight was contained in the very last session by Dairy UK, where Emma Gregson, the environment manager for the organisation, updated the assembled on the Dairy Roadmap and its plans for further integrating sustainability all along the dairy supply chain. She noted how the industry has done much better on its targets than was forecast, but how people in the industry don’t always know about the good work being done by their dairy neighbours.

The discussion of siloing and how it negatively impacts the overall industry was, in fact, a theme of the morning’s presentations. What could be done about it was detailed, whether it was streamlining one’s cleaning-in-place system or embracing digitalisation for process efficiency. Please see the August issue of Dairy Industries International for the full coverage of this event, and of the cheese judging and the SDT’s Summer Symposium, which was all held at the venue.

Image: Suzanne Christiansen

Gregson’s presentation particularly caught my attention when she was discussing how 10 UK dairy farms are being supplied with birdsong monitors as part of a move to help measure biodiversity in their areas. This is a personal favourite of mine – I have the Merlin app (from Cornell University) on my phone, and one of the joys of an early morning start is running the sound recording portion outside to hear who’s up and singing. You download the app and then your package of birds – so, for example, I’m in Western Europe so that’s the one I have. One morning recently there were seven different birds all chatting away, and I’ve seen at least five other different types on a day at the birdfeeders in our back garden, here in Greater London. However, I am still unsure how to get the local great spotted woodpecker to stop destroying our plum tree. We have given up and are leaving it to them to enjoy, and have planted another plum tree nearby.

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• Suzanne Christiansen, editor, Dairy Industries International.
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