Greedy swans hit watercress crop in Alresford (From This is Hampshire)

Greedy swans hit watercress crop in Alresford

5:02pm Thursday 30th April 2009

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SWANS have caused havoc at an Alresford farm by helping themselves to thousands of pounds worth of watercress.

Up to 60 of the elegant creatures have spent the last month or so munching on £100,000 worth of the peppery salad leaves at Drayton Farm.

Farm workers have used bird scarers and dressed in high visibility jackets to chase the swans, but with little success.

“They have got a real taste for watercress over the years,” said Tom Amery, managing director of The Water cress Company, which operates the farm.

“We have spoken to people at Natural England [about moving the swans] but they are not committing to any thing. We have got to find them a home if we do that.”

The swans — that have been increasing in numbers over recent years — feast on the salad leaves for around a month each spring, before returning to nearby Alresford Pond to begin breeding.

Mr Amery said protective nets are put up over large parts of the 10-acre farm to protect good quality watercress. But it is not cost effective to cover everything, meaning the inferior crops are open to attack from swans.

He added: “It’s a bit frustrating because you’re losing your crop, but at the end of the day it was not all going to be used anyway.”

Although swans have a reputation for being belligerent, Mr Amery confirmed there had been no injuries suffered by farm workers.

Farmer Tom Jesty said: “Unfortunately they take no notice of gas guns, they know they’re safe — they’re the Queen’s birds!”

The Queen’s right to ownership of swans is restricted to unmarked mute swans on open water, and this right is exercised only on certain stretches of the River Thames.

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