Dungalore!!! - or A Call of Nature

These are exciting times for Sheffield’s lovers of farm livestock dung (coprophiliacs?). As I’ve said before there must be many thousands of such enthusiasts for whom this has to be their real reason for venturing into the countryside. After all without the active support of such a constituency why would there be so much of it? Connoisseurs must experience a racing of pulses as they approach the now well and truly farmed landscape of Blacka. To think that without the impeccable judgement of Sheffield Wildlife Trust this wonderful place would never have been reclaimed for farming, for high level intervention... and for dung. It might even now be a neglected and natural site where plants just grew where they wanted to, missing out on the inestimable benefits of barbed wire and cow and sheep faeces.



Only now can we appreciate just what a precious and valuable resource we have here. And it cannot be said often enough that this is a threatened habitat and an experience denied to many in the world, reminding us that Britain has some of the last remaining landscapes where such really colossal proportions of tip-top quality material (and all organic) can be found actually on the ground where we walk! This makes it an international priority area. If visitors from around the world are not flocking in their thousands to the west of Sheffield to experience this wealth of dung then they jolly well should be.



In days now sadly gone we could have taken a similar trip among the factories of eastern Sheffield and savoured the delectable taste of sulphured air as the factory chimneys gifted the atmosphere with a unique and powerful perfume and its accompanying yellow fog. The farmed landscape, hopefully carpeted with dung, is the other side of that coin and, fortunately for us, it has not suffered a similar fate – indeed it is now restored thanks to the efforts of SWT and their allies in the environmental grants departments of Natural England who generously bestow our tax-raised money on anyone with the enterprise to put farm animals on this land to convert the natural vegetation into what they do best.



And is it not so much better to have this beauteous brown stuff everywhere rather than those depressing wild flowers, grasses and, God forbid, even trees that would otherwise pollute our public land?

Each day produces new delights. Today’s observation will concentrate on the dried dung. After days of warm dry weather most dung now appears in its paler form with only the freshest examples displaying familiar darker brown colouring. Where to start? Well, plenty of good dung-spotting to be done in the grassy enclosure, in fact only a blind person could miss it (– though he would almost certainly tread in it). Fortunately no distractions from flowers or tall grasses here, or anywhere near - the woolly mowers have done their job well. On going through the gate note the quantity of first rate specimens close by, being careful to distinguish the larger, crusty deposits harking back to the days in spring when cattle were in this enclosure. Time and the effects of weathering add considerable interest to these samples, so don’t forget to make good observational sketches.

From here take a trip up the hill to the summit following the pleasant wheel marks left by the farmer’s vehicle. Good to note that these impressions can now be seen from quite a distance away now and we should all look forward with keen anticipation to the time when it becomes necessary to cover this part of the hill with tarmac. At the top you get the full experience. Here it is that we so easily get carried away with the wonder of it all as we find ourselves in the middle of a superb array of spatterings as far as the eye can see. Savour this moment and carry the vision with you to recall it at those times perhaps in winter when you are seated before the yule log.

One disappointment for live stock loving visitors is that the accessories in the form of aluminium hurdles previously so carefully positioned to catch the eye from almost anywhere, have now been removed, albeit I’m sure only temporarily. But, to compensate, a handsome galvanised water trough has been brought onsite.



This is suitably placed to encourage the cutting of even more vehicle tracks further onto the hill top thus helping to crush any unnecessary wild flowers not already eaten by the sheep. The subtle yellowing of the surrounding grass is a bonus.



We should humbly remember at this point when our minds are full of the experience of all this ordurific material that some years ago many thoroughly misguided people were opposed to SWT increasing the numbers of livestock on Blacka, even going so far as to suggest that some places should be kept free from farmed animals.

Where are these ignorant people now, I ask? Shouldn’t they be asked to return and say what they think now?