The corncrake is one of Britain's most threatened farmland birds, whose welfare depends on carefully managed grassland mowing regimes that protect nesting birds.
Corncrake welfare was historically devastated by the adoption of mechanised mowing - birds and chicks caught by fast machinery in the centre of large fields faced violent, sudden death or serious injury. The welfare-sensitive mowing approach - beginning at field edges and moving inward, giving birds time to move ahead of machinery - is both conservation and welfare intervention. Birds disturbed from nests experience acute stress, but survival is far preferable to cutting death. Agri-environment schemes that compensate farmers for adopting corncrake-friendly mowing practices represent effective welfare policy in action.