Up there it's not enough to be sheepwrecked; for the last week or so the agri-environment regime in the grassy wasteland has had to be supplemented with a strong dose of cow-blighting. Now the crop&crappers have come down to the so-called "heathland" partition of what the managers choose to call a 'nature reserve'. As we all know by now, the site is only dressed up with that and other imaginative designations to help it qualify for the aforementioned agri-environment schemes and their handsome fundings. What they call it with the miserable beasts that have to accompany it serve no useful purpose not even achieving what was originally claimed. I remember a poor effort being made at a meeting trying to persuade us apparently ignorant townies why it was so important for the land to have cows on it (otherwise they implied it would self-destruct). A slide was projected showing a cow chewing on some birch leaves. What heroes.
The facts do not need presentation. We can see for ourselves. Sheep and cows are boring and dirty and they turn natural beauty into something unnattractive and often insalubrious. Only those who cannot see will dispute that. The wilful blindness is evident in various strenuous efforts made and occasionally seen on BBC programmes. Sponsored by farming and game industry organisations people travel the usual talks circuits to promote the view that a landscape without sheep and cattle would be an utter disaster. The same happens with grouse and other game birds. Pheasants are aliens and Grouse another boring birds carrying a heavy responsibility for the scenic tedium of our uplands.
Meanwhile, as the bovine visitors take over, heads down cropping and crapping the grass, our natural wild deer are browsing among the fresh leaves of Birch and Rowan.
They are beautifully clean, unintrusive and they have a lively alert air not seen on farm animals. One young stag is particularly frisky. And their coats have shed the excess winter layers revealing why they are called red deer.
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