Norfolk Wildlife Trust maintaining biodiversity with British White breed

Managing multiple grazing sites across the county of Norfolk, NWT Grazing Manager Jon Preston describes how British White cattle are used alongside other species to maintain a healthy and biodiverse area of UK countryside.

Using hardy cattle which maintain areas of varying sward heights to create ideal conditions for ground-nesting birds is a tried and true practice which the Trust has been using to restore populations of lapwing, stone curlew, nightjar and wood lark, along with plant species such as the wild Breckland Thyme. Jon says: “To the uninitiated, the county of Norfolk in East Anglia may appear an uninteresting part of the country for wildlife. The perception of a flat, arable landscape belies an area rich in biodiversity and is home to many rare and endangered species. Norfolk Wildlife Trust manage around 12,000 acres, from the unique inland sand dunes of the Brecks in the south of the county, to the Broads and the North Norfolk coast.

“Many of these habitats are semi-natural, formed over centuries of human intervention for agriculture, wood production and peat collection. Grazing by domestic livestock has been an integral part of this formation, and today this management continues, allowing us to keep different habitats at the right stage of succession for the widest range of species of plants, insects and birds.

“The Trust keep ponies, sheep, goats, pigs and cattle, each of these species having an important role to play in this conservation management. Dartmoor ponies crop the coarse grasses very tightly, allowing rarer, more delicate flora to maintain a foothold amongst more dominant species, whereas the pigs undertake ground disturbance, mimicking the role of their wild boar ancestors, creating niches for plants to seed into and controlling invasive species like bracken.

“As we all look at ways of reducing our carbon footprint, the use of these animals can reduce our use of diesel using tractors, as well as being lighter on the land and having an undeniable aesthetic appeal.

“The cattle we keep are, of course, British Whites and they carry out a wide range of grazing for us. They are hardy, living outside all year with no supplementary feeding, and adapt well to various site conditions, be that a dry heathland site or a grazing marsh on the coast. Their light colour also means that they are able to cope well with the hot summers which are likely to increase in the future. We currently have around 90 animals and intend to grow this number to around 150 over the next few years. We have now established a small breeding herd which is intended to supply this increase.”

The Trust purchased their first stock bull, Castleton Jupiter (EX93), in October 2023 to begin breeding replacements and to grow numbers for the grazing herd

The management of so many sites takes a team effort and plenty of co-ordination, from both the stock handlers and the cattle! On selecting which breed to use, Jon says: “We find the British White docile and easy to handle – very important traits as many of our sites have public access and we do tend to move animals quite regularly; it is not uncommon for some of the herd to undertake grazing on five or six sites throughout the year, so animals that are easy to gather and load are essential.

“The majority of our land is in some form of environmental stewardship agreement and the income derived from the grazing supplements means that all of our conservation grazing is fully funded, an important factor for a charity like ours. A team of three stock people manage the animals on a day-to-day basis, carrying out regular welfare checks, moving animals and undertaking any necessary veterinary care. Although the herd is modest in size it can be spread over twenty sites, meaning that careful logistical planning is very important."

The Trust has also been trialling the use of ‘no fence’ collars at Sweet Briar Marshes in the centre of Norwich, allowing reserve staff to monitor their grazing efforts. The site has a solid boundary fence but the collars allow staff to adjust the areas within the fence that the cattle graze, depending on what best benefits the wildlife. Jon and the team at NWT were delighted to have won the trophy for Best New Herd at this year’s AGM presentation for the National Herd Competition, the full report for which is here.