Grazing

Grazing is an essential element of the care of many NWT nature reserves. We use sheep, cattle, ponies and rabbits to keep encroaching growth at bay and prevent our open habitats from becoming choked. Our Flying Flock is employed on nature reserves throughout the county to nibble its way through vegetation which we’d otherwise have to use heavy machinery to keep at bay. 550 hardy Shetland, Black Welsh Mountain, Herdwick and Hebridean ewes make up the flock, and their strong constitution makes them ideal for use in Norfolk open habitats. They live and lamb outdoors, and overwinter on our nature reserves in Breckland. So efficient are they as lawn mowers that they can often be seen favouring tough scrubby growth over tender grass!

We use hardy Konik Polski to graze wet areas on our Broadland nature reserves. Natives of eastern Europe, they are well used to having wet feet year round and do a fabulous job on ground where sheep simply couldn’t manage.

And we use rabbits for grazing too! At NWT Weeting Heath in the Brecks we fence them into the nature reserve as their scrabbling and foraging creates exactly the conditions required by stone curlew. These yellow eyed, knobbly kneed ground nesting birds need loose stony ground in which to feed to and build their nests, and rabbits are the key to providing these fussy breeders with their exact requirements. Stone curlews breed with more success at NWT Weeting Heath than anywhere else in the country, and oddly enough rabbits are key to that!