It cost at least £100,000 to make a cattle grazing enclosure on Blacka Moor.I could be very far below in this and I would be grateful for a reliable statement. The trouble is I don't know where I would get it from. Certainly if it's less than that it couldn't be much less. The barbed wire alone cost upwards of £18,000 so if you add the other fencing and stone walling then that's the minimum I could accept.
All for 9 cows!! So they had better be doing the job we were told they would do. Most of the justification for cattle grazing focused on controlling bracken and birch scrub. So far each time I have seen the cattle they have been on the paths (created by humans) eating the grass at the side. Or they have been off the paths in areas of grass where there has been no heather or bracken. The large areas of birch saplings on the firebreaks I regularly walk past seem to have been untouched by them so far. And I've not once seen them inside a patch of bracken.
The cows above are in a grassy area well away from bracken and heather.
The other thing to note is that when they see you they start to move towards you, as they are doing here.
2 comments:
I have a question. Are there any studies that show cows will eat bracken when there is other better food available, like grass? I remember as a youth in Kansas working on a farm that the cattle would leave the less desirable plants and would feed on the more desirable grass. So back to my original question. Are there any studies that show cattle will eat bracken?
up, I've not come across any studies suggesting that. There have been attempts to record the impressions of farmers and others but they don't come near a scientific study. Simple observation has its value when the observer has no reason to skew the record. So far most of these animals have looked for grass. They've seemed to be snatching at bits of birch in passing and they've also taken a liking to the bilberry shrubs. There is some idea that they will eat young tender bracken shoots and DEFRA (our environment department) recommends they are not allowed on land when the bracken is young. It's possible that they will eat very small saplings amongst the grass, but you need to get close to see this!
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