Protecting lapwing nests from agricultural machinery during the spring farming season is among the most direct and achievable welfare interventions available to arable and grassland farmers.
Lapwing nest protection welfare involves the immediate welfare of eggs and incubating adults, and the longer-term welfare implications of successful versus failed breeding. Nests destroyed by machinery contain embryos at various stages of development - the welfare significance of embryo mortality is uncertain but the welfare cost to the incubating adult, which must reinvest in a repeat nesting attempt, is clear. Adults repeatedly flushed from nests by agricultural machinery expend energy on alarm flight and experience behavioral stress from nest threat. Practical nest protection through GPS mapping and exclusion zones is low-cost relative to the welfare benefit and can be combined with data collection that supports population monitoring.