Bird-friendly meadowland management measurably benefits godwits according to researchers, based on four years of field work conducted in southwest Friesland. An egg laid in farmland with a higher water table, greater plant variety among the grass and a later mowing date has no less than a 17 times greater chance to lead to a mature godwit the following spring than an egg laid in highly productive, intensively farmed fields, in other words farmland managed in traditional fashion.