Originally published in the 2026 August Leader
Image credit Harry Morton
Last month I caught up with Shetland Regional Vice Chair and Crofting Committee Vice Chair, Laura Sinclair, on her involvement in a Species on the Edge project on her croft in Shetland.
In June, Laura hosted a croft walk and shared her views at a Crofting and Farming with Nature Seminar hosted by RSPB Shetland. Laura wanted to showcase how intrinsic nature is with agriculture in Shetland.
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Through working with Species on the Edge, Laura has used the bumblebird crop, which targets pollinators such as the Shetland bumblebee and twite, a small finch like brown bird which is dependent on seed throughout the winter to survive. The mix has been tweaked to not only delivered for these endangered species but also for the croft, with the inclusion of brassicas and legumes that aim to improve soil quality, structure and organic matter. So far, the results have been positive, and Laura is waiting on her first cut of silage to see if the bumblebird crop has improved her yield.
Laura’s family croft borders part of a loch where she has used wader strips. During wader breeding season Laura used an electric fence to keep livestock off. The area usually needs to be fenced off around mid-April and unlike any current environmental scheme, the fence only comes down when the chicks have fledged. For instance, last year the oystercatchers fledged earlier, so Laura was able to open the area at the end of May. This year, curlew arrived a little later than the other waders and successfully hatched 4 chicks, so the fence stayed up until mid-June. So far, they have managed the grazing around this, and it has worked.
Laura has also been able to trial the Monil virtual fence collars on her cattle. This has been groundbreaking on the croft, allowing cattle to graze where they haven’t been in years. As a result, the vegetation is starting to look lusher (no longer old matted grass tangled among the marram), birds-foot-trefoil has started to grow in patches, and the sand martins have returned (they haven’t nested in the area for 25 years).
Throughout our discussion, the importance of collaboration was clear, only by working together will we ensure future policy delivers for agriculture and nature. At the recent seminar, stakeholders including NFUS, Shetland Livestock Marketing Group, Species on the Edge, Shetland Amenity Trust, SAC, Nature Friendly Farming Network and Nature Scot, came together to discuss how they will secure future funding to continue the achievements of the last three years.