Conservation Grazing

Surrey Biodiversity Partnership

Position Paper Series

Conservation Grazing

The Surrey Biodiversity Partnership supports conservation grazing in Surrey. To this end we have over the years set up grazing projects in Surrey.

The Heathland Project has for years used ponies and highland cattle to help restore and maintain heath and now owns its own ponies. The Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) Grazing Project was initiated by the partnership at a time when it was becoming impossible to find graziers to supply enough conservation grazing animals. SWT now owns a herd of conservation grazing animals that graze its own and other partners land. Partners such as the National Trust also graze meadows, heaths and chalk grasslands with conservation herds.

We believe that certain habitats depend on carefully monitored grazing often interspersed with periods of absence from grazing. Getting the balance of grazing right for all species present on a site can be a science in itself.

The Ancient History of Grazing Animals in Britain

Before man came to the islands of Britain huge herds of large grazing mammals roamed the country. Anywhere in the world where there are herds of large grazing mammals we see the formation of grassland, heathland, fenland or marshes. These keystone animals create and maintain the habitats that they thrive on. The habitats in turn are ancient and were once as common as the herds. Over time many species of plants, invertebrates and other animals evolved to depend upon these open grazed habitats. Thus a rich and diverse flora and fauna are associated with herds and grazed habitats. Grazing herds are an essential part of our ecosystems.

Conservation grazing is usually carried out with breeds that are most closely related to our lost ancient herds. These animals have evolved alongside the habitat they create. Habitat and herd depend upon each other. The animals thrive on a low nutrient diet and can forage in rough grazing that a domestic breed would not attempt. In fact they are harmed by nutrient rich diets and can not be left on rich pastures or fed tit-bits without suffering, often severe, illness.

Herd animals have population fluctuations and move across the land. Each species of flora or fauna associated with a grazed habitat may require slightly different intensities and patterns of grazing. In conservation grazing we look at what species are present on or near to a site and at what species we would hope to bring back and their grazing or habitat needs. We also look at the patterns of movement of the herd over a site to see where they graze a lot and where they visit infrequently. We aim to tailor the grazing to suit the range of species and the most important species present. We do this by taking the animals on or off the land seasonally. Sometimes a site will need a period of heavier grazing and sometimes a period without grazing for some months or even years. Natural herd fluctuations can have 15 or 20 year cycles. Conservation grazing depends on back up grazing land - this can be other conservation land or have little conservation interest just providing foraging for the animals' benefit. The animals can be moved between sites to keep the balance of grazing on sensitive species rich conservation land.

The Lost Herds

The ancient herds of Britain and Europe were huge and roamed freely over the countryside. The Tarpan, our native horse, Equus ferus ferus, disappeared from Britain around 5,000 years ago and became extinct when it was lost from Europe in the late 1800's.

The Auroch was a massive creature, which stood more than six feet tall at the shoulder, each individual weighing more than a ton. It had forward-facing horns and a white stripe running down its spine. These prehistoric cattle were domesticated about 8,000 years ago. Some aurochs remained in the wild until the end of the Middle Ages, they became extinct due to overhunting and loss of habitat.

The European Bison and the Elk disappeared soon after. These species all became casualties of increasing pressures from the rapidly growing human population.

The Wild Boar survived much later, but was finally hunted to extinction in Britain just 300 years ago. We have this ancestor of the pig to thank for our friendly garden robin: It is thought that the robin evolved its behaviour of picking up freshly unearthed invertebrates alongside wild boars as they rooted in woodlands and glades.

Closest Relatives

Ponies

The now extinct Tarpan's closest relations are used as conservation grazers:

• Exmoor Ponies - considered to be the closest relative to the Tarpan. Introduced to large grazing projects in the Netherlands.
• New Forest Ponies
• Dartmoor Ponies
• Shetland Ponies
• Highland Ponies
• Welsh Mountain Ponies
• Fell Ponies
• Konik Ponies - Originating from Poland the Konik is a close descendant of the European Tarpan and has been chosen for helping to create large wetland grazing projects such as Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, Konik Ponies at Wicken Fen. These striking ponies are the ancient breed least dependent on man, not requiring regular medication and having high resistance to disease and parasites.

Cattle

Aurochs though extinct since 1627, when the last survivor died in a Polish nature reserve, left some of their features and genes in our rarer breeds of cattle. There are 30 breeds descending from British stock, of which around 12 make good conservation grazers, many of whom are rare breeds.

• The White Park is the most ancient of UK cattle breeds today. First mentioned in Irish sagas, being used as currency as early as the fourth century AD, and in Wales it was given special status from the ninth century. The White Park has never been selectively bred by man and has been extensively managed with semi wild herds being enclosed in parkland for hunting. White Parks thrive on coarse herbage and were traditionally kept as a woodland breed. They retain natural qualities of longevity, adaptability and ease of calving. In the Second World War their importance was recognised, Churchill sent a breeding group to Toronto to ensure their survival.
• Highland cattle - With their waterproof double-layered coat Highlands are a hardy conservation grazer and browser used on Surrey nature reserves.
• Belted Galloways are often seen on Surrey nature reserves.
• Welsh Black, one of the best scrub grazers.

Cattle Breeding Programmes

As part of their propaganda the Nazis bred Spanish fighting bulls with local breeds to try to recreate the Auroch that had featured in ancient German culture. The Heck cattle produced look similar to cave paintings of Auroch but have differences such as un-naturally aggressive behaviour - attacking without warning. Wild animals will normally posture before risking attack. Their DNA does not closely match Auroch's taken from museum samples.

A new breeding programme is underway to breed cattle, that have both the visual features and genetics that are similar to Aurochs, for use in habitat restoration work. The project is managed by Henri Kerkdijk from Stichting Taurus, a Dutch nature conservation group. Meanwhile the Heck Cattle have been successfully introduced to recreate floodplain in a huge nature restoration project in Holland.

Trees that live for a thousand years

Grazing herds are key in creating ancient trees - the open grown giants that develop without competition for light. These trees with their full crowns and wide reaching branches have the structure and strength to become incredibly ancient, oaks can live for over a thousand years and yew trees have been recorded that are 4,000 years old. Their forest grown counterparts will grow taller and straighter with small high crowns competing for light with their neighbours. These trees form a cathedral like architecture of many individuals growing straight up and meeting overhead. They do not have the structure to live for more than a couple of hundred years and so do not develop the rich habitats of holes and hollows or the rich assemblages of live and dead wood species that live in the many cracks and crevices of an ancient. Ancient open-grown trees naturally start life in grassland, where grazing is light or absent for a year or two allowing a few individual trees to "get away" and grow up, this is usually followed by 15 or so years where grazing pressure is too high for new tree regeneration and grassland is maintained around the existing trees and scrub patches.

Dogs and Grazing animals

Please see Dogs and Nature Conservation

Useful Links:

Grazing Animals Project

Surrey Wildlife Trust Grazing Project

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