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In harmony

In the farming world, Chris is Mr Big. He farms over 9,000 acres in the Brecklands of Norfolk, supplying supermarkets with vegetables such as carrots and potatoes. This is industrial farming - the supposed enemy of nature - yet his fields are home to more than just crops. Chris says "I’ve always been keen on wildlife myself so that’s always come as sort of second nature. I think of the birds, or I think of whether we have lapwings nesting. We had 20 lapwings nest on a field this year that was going to be drilled with parsnips, and we left it and left it and left it and then that was drilled very late." Lapwings are quite happy nesting on ploughed fields and were doing well until giant machines came along. But with special care accidents can be avoided. Chris will go round lapwing’s nests and it’s amazing how tame they can get - allowing a tractor within two or three metres and completely ignoring it. They see it on such a daily basis that they forget about it.

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Duration:

2 minutes