Amazing Grazing

Dusk in the Brecks. From a dusty stretch of grass comes a grating wail: one voice, then another, and another until the last light is filled with spine-chilling sound. These are the calls of stone curlews. They owe their existence here to sheep.

In 2016, as we celebrate 90 years of achievement by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, we are accustomed to the idea of conservation grazing. We understand that livestock is a valuable tool in the management of semi-natural habitats, such as chalk grassland, heathland, Breck grassland and fen. Yet twenty-five years ago, when the Flying Flock was established at NWT, this was still a fledgling idea. In the early 1990s then Conservation Manager Reg Land took a phone call from Robin Goolden. Robin had five Hebridean ewes in the Wensum Valley and wondered whether NWT would like them. Reg said yes please and, as simple as that, NWT acquired its first sheep. There was method in Reg’s spur-of-the-moment madness: NWT had for some time been managing reserves with livestock belonging to external graziers but had persistently struggled to find small numbers of animals to graze small sites. All over Norfolk nature reserves needed light grazing and this was NWT’s chance to start and manage its own flock. But where to put five Hebridean sheep until a grazing plan could be drawn up? At the time there was no stock fencing on any of NWT’s reserves. So Reg rang long-term volunteer Sandy Tolhurst, who kept her own sheep, and she offered to hold the ewes on her field. Next the reserves team thought about where the new sheep could best be used and began to wire off small areas of reserves to be grazed. Sandy, who had an interest in breeding rare sheep, covered the ewes with her own rams and little by little the Flying Flock, named for its habit of moving between reserves, began to grow. A grant soon enabled NWT to buy a livestock trailer; then another grant saw Sandy employed as NWT’s first Shepherd. She stayed for several years, supervising the growing flock. In time she was replaced by Gary Williams who was later joined by Corinne Lehmann. In 1998 NWT received a £2.6 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for Securing The Future. This ambitious five-year project allowed habitat to be restored and visitor access improved across 26 nature reserves. It also saw the expansion of the Flying Flock, the fencing of many reserves and the reintroduction of conservation grazing to them. Today the NWT grazing team manages a flock of pedigree Shetland and Black Welsh Mountain sheep, a herd of Dartmoor and Konik ponies, and a herd of British White Cattle. They are ably assisted by six border collies, plus two pups in training.

This ambitious five-year project allowed habitat to be restored and visitor access improved across 26 nature reserves

But why graze? Some purist conservationists believe that nothing unnatural should be done to manage any nature reserve. Certainly in the absence of humans and their livestock Norfolk, and most of the UK, would swiftly revert to woodland. Conservation organisations graze land all over the UK in part because of traditional and cultural bias. In the UK we have a cultural, even romantic affinity with open landscapes which were created by deforestation, grazing and agriculture but which we now value as being especially British. Likewise we have an affinity with the organisms which inhabit these landscapes: the skylarks and grey partridges of arable East Anglia, the stonechats and adders of lowland heaths. Much more importantly, however, as conservationists we have a duty to give the rare species of open habitats a place to live in the modern UK. Most of the UK landscape is no longer appropriate for our wetland or open-country species. This being the case we cannot allow all of our nature reserves to turn to woods and simply tell the bitterns, stone curlews, swallowtails and maiden pinks of our open habitats to make do in the wheat fields or under the trees. They would swiftly disappear from the county and from the UK. Essentially the places in which such species thrive today were created for or by livestock: meadows, downs and heaths for grazing, ponds for watering, fens for grazing or harvesting hay. What better way to preserve and recreate the habitats and wildlife assemblages associated with historic grazing than to graze again today? So the work of the Flying Flock spread across the network of NWT reserves and increasingly the need was seen to branch out from sheep to other livestock. Sheep are still critical in maintaining the short sward of Breck grassland for rare plants and nesting stone curlews, not least since the implementation of the Brecks Heath Partnership under which NWT - and its sheep - have collaborated in the restoration of large areas of grassland. Elsewhere, however, ponies deliver better results and NWT now has more than 150: broadly speaking Polish Koniks in wet habitats such as fen and grazing marsh and Dartmoors on drier sites such as heaths. These are ideal breeds for grazing nature reserves as, properly cared for, they thrive outdoors year round with no need for supplementary feed.

Feed, in fact, is occasionally used as a bribe by the 30 Volunteer Livestock Checkers who, between them, check all of the NWT ponies (and more recently cattle) every day. They comprise a fantastically dedicated team responsible for the welfare of the livestock on NWT reserves, without whom the whole operation would be simply impossible. In return for their pains they build close relationships with the reserves they visit, often seeing far more wildlife than even the wardens, and with the livestock in their care. Volunteer Ian Hodge checks the 40 ponies on NWT Roydon Common and Grimston Warren on three days each week. He is the only person who knows each of the ponies by name and he walks countless miles across the Common, into every secluded corner and the habitat of every rare species, in his efforts to find each pony on each visit. All he has ever asked for in return is an NWT cap, happily given to him by Conservation Grazing Manager David Tallentire. David, whose childhood was on a Cumbrian dairy farm, has recently catalysed the introduction of 15 British White cattle to NWT. These were acquired from the Woodbastwick herd which has maintained the breed in the Norfolk Broads since 1840. NWT’s new cattle were quickly set to work grazing sites including Upton Broad and Marshes. So successful have they been in creating a varied sward, ideal for a range of fen species, that this year will see 17 more pedigree cattle join the herd, which in turn will take on a range of other habitats including heaths in West Norfolk. The purchase of the cattle has been made possible with funding from Biffa Award and Wren biodiversity action fund. In 2016 grazing, some still by agreement with external graziers, but most by NWT’s sheep, ponies and cattle, is at the heart of nature reserve management for rare species and their habitats in Norfolk. After twenty-five years of successful grazing at NWT the warm breath and long tongues of cattle in the grazing marshes at Cley will continue to promote the conditions needed by nesting lapwings and redshank and maintain the short grass loved by winter’s dark-bellied brent geese. Likewise, the fine nibbling of Black Welsh Mountain sheep at Weeting will make space among the grass for spiked speedwell and maiden pink. The sturdy hooves of NWT’s British White cattle will squelch through Upton Marshes, keeping invasive willows at bay, holding habitat for swallowtail butterflies and variable damselflies. And on heaths the rubbery lips of Dartmoor ponies will nibble out birches, keeping Roydon Common and Buxton Heath healthy for green tiger beetles, mottled grasshoppers and emperor moths. For millennia these places have been grazed, creating unique habitats for wildlife; and for the next ninety years of our history we will continue to graze them, for the wildlife of Norfolk and for the people who love it.

NWT Wider Conservation

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