Shropshire farmer urges others to help create 'bee road' meadows

A farmer is encouraging more farms to follow his lead and plant wildflower meadows to help bees flourish.

Chris Jerman, from Chirbury in Shropshire, started growing the meadows in 2019 for pollinating insects and said the response had been brilliant.

"The amount of goodwill it has created in the local community has been fantastic," he said.

Mr Jerman has encouraged neighbouring farms to follow suit and create a "bee road" for the insects.

The idea is to create a network of wildflower meadows so bees can fly around the countryside and always find a food source easily.

"Rather than say one farmer that maybe grew 300 acres of this... far better that 300 farmers just grow an acre of it," Mr Jerman said.

Milk co-operative Arla Foods UK organised the project and said they wanted to reverse the decline in bees in recent years.

The insects play an important role in pollinating flowers and plants and the fall in their numbers due to changing temperatures and pesticides has been well documented.

An expert on wildflowers worked with Mr Jerman, helping him to choose a variety of species which bloom at different times during the year.

"What is ideal about them is they do not like fertile land so we do not have to give up the best bits of the farm that produce all your food," he said. "If anything we want the worst bits."

As well as helping bees to thrive, Mr Jerman said the relationship was mutually beneficial as the insects go on to pollinate crops.

"It's really important we find that balance on farms between producing food for the consumer and also producing food for biodiversity," he said.

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]