Lapwing, curlew, golden plover, and redshank chicks face acute welfare challenges on farmland where agricultural intensification has reduced both nesting habitat and chick food availability.
Farmland wader chick welfare is determined by the intersection of predation pressure, food availability, and weather. Chicks must self-feed within hours of hatching, requiring abundant surface invertebrates in accessible wet or bare habitats. In intensively managed grassland, prey invertebrate density has declined below the threshold needed to sustain chick growth rates. Chicks that cannot find sufficient food show growth failure, immune compromise, and progressive weakness before death. Silage cutting directly kills chicks that cannot run fast enough to escape machinery - an acute welfare event that occurs across millions of hectares annually. The welfare solution is clearly identified but requires sustained farm-level management change incentivised through agri-environment payments.