Amazing Grazing at Londonthorpe Woods
Londonthorpe Wood welcomed its new bovine residents as the grazing livestock moooo-ved onto the site recently. Hereford and Charolais cows will help us to keep the scrub under control in particular areas around the Alma Wood section of the site – once they’ve grazed one compartment, they will be moved on to another. Moving the cows around will result in both grazed and un–grazed areas, which will lead to an increase in habitat diversity.
Conservation grazing adopts the traditional and natural approach to managing habitats – its inclusion in the site management plan helping to ensure the site is looked after in the best way possible. The benefits of conversation grazing are huge, this method of conservation helps to enhancing natural regeneration and creates new areas for wildlife species to thrive.
We’ve ensured that that visitors to Londonthorpe will still have full access to the site without the need to go near the cows, as we’ve fenced off the grazing areas where the livestock will be and maintained footpaths around these areas. Clear signage has been introduced, asking visitors to stick to paths and keep their dogs on a lead when walking in the grazing areas and we are working closely with the grazier to ensure the cows are well looked after.
Volunteer cattle monitors will help us to keep an eye on the cows. Working as a team they will visit the site regularly to make sure that the cows are where they should be and are in good health. They will report any concerns to their volunteer manager who will pass the information onto the grazier.
This scheme of conservation grazing is part of the 4-year, ‘Reconnecting Grantham to its historic landscape’ project. The Woodland Trust and National Trust are working together in partnership to achieve the project’s aims, to raise public awareness, understanding and engagement with Londonthorpe Woods and Bellmount, as well as better conserving their historic and natural assets. The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting this work.
To find out more you might like to go to the project pages and there is also a Facebook group.
Amanda Brookes – Volunteering Development Officer (Central England)
Image from Pexels website
Mike Fox
Hello – wonderful stuff. However, if you don’t have access to the appropriate livestock, can you achieve something like the same result with human effort – e g along rides in a woodland setting?
Amanda Brookes
Hi Mike, thanks for your question. I needed to go away and find out the answer from our site manager at Londonthorpe – apologies for the delay!
Well-managed, linear open ground such as wide rides, managed through mowing, can be very diverse in flora and will especially produce a super-abundance of woodland flowers – plus the woodland edge / transitional zone itself is also extremely important for many forms of wildlife. Large areas of open ground can be managed through mowing / haycropping, but the habitat will always be improved through grazing animals, especially cattle, because this creates a very diverse multi-structural habitat (everything from bare areas of soil, tussocky grass to scrub thickets), which you can’t recreate easily through mowing and other means. The grazing is especially beneficial in promoting a greater diversity of plants and insects, which in turn attracts many birds and mammals as we go up the food chain.