A total of £2,400 is up for grabs, including £200 for the NI winner and a top prize of £1,000 for the overall UK winner. You will need to be able to show what action you have taken on your farm to benefit wildlife, whether for birds, invertebrates or plants.
The award will celebrate the role the UK's farmers play in conserving our wildlife by working with BBC's Countryfile magazine, Butterfly Conservation and Plantlife. The Northern Irish winner of the award will have the chance to make the final shortlist of four farmers, who will be put to a public vote to decide who is the overall UK winner.
Ways farmers can benefit birds include good hedgerow and field margin management, providing seed sources through winter stubbles or wild bird cover (particularly beneficial to yellowhammers), or by specific management such as managing fields for lapwing, curlew or snipe.
You can benefit invertebrates (insects, earthworms, etc) by appropriate soil and watercourse management, the provision of wet features, permanent field boundary & margin habitats and the creation of flower-rich habitats.
Native plant species can be encouraged by maintaining woodlands, hedgerows, ditch and river banks, grass margins, heathlands and unimproved grasslands. Within crops the appropriate use of cultivations and pesticides can conserve scare plants.
To enter your farm in the 'Nature of Farming Award' use the online form at, www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork /farming/natureoffarming or call us on 028 9049 1547.