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From: Laura, Grazing Project & Reserves Officer
Hello
We’ve recently had a few of our cattle move off the heaths and back to their farms for the winter.
At Long Valley, the ten Aberdeen Angus calves (which were as big as their mums by the time they left) were taken away by their farmer just after the New Year. This farmer is building up her number of Aberdeen Angus so that in a few years she will have solely this breed in her herd, so some of the male calves will be kept to become bulls and the females will become her future breeding stock. The nine cows and bull now remain on the site next to Tweseldown racecourse and will stay out all winter. We hope that all the cows should be in calf (meaning they are pregnant) as they’ve been ‘running with the bull’ all year. We anticipate that they may start to calf around the end of April/May time.
Up the hill at Caesar’s Camp, just this week the herd of 32 Hereford crosses and Aberdeen Angus crosses was reduced to just 11 individuals, as the food supply on site is not so good in the winter. All of these cows are heifers (young female cows) so they will return to their farm for now. The 11 that remain are being given supplementary mineral licks to ensure they don’t lose condition on the rough forage. In the spring, when the grasses really start growing fast - more cattle will return to graze this huge site.
At Pondtail, where our own six Dexters are staying for a few months, we have now opened them up to the main part of the site which extends right down to the Canal. They are really embracing their new heathland life, and have been reported eating gorse, heather and birch buds!
On our reserves - some of the Belted Galloways at Ancells Farm are still in their winter ‘layback’ fields where they’ve got grass left over from the summer months – and the farmer who owns them can give them supplementary food such as hay or silage as the fields are not part of the sensitive SSSI land.
At Bartley Heath in Hook, some long awaited Highland cows finally arrived last weekend to join the New Forest ponies that have been grazing there for some years. There arrival marks the end of a lot of work by Rachel and Elliott to get the fence suitable for cattle as well as just the ponies. The owner of these animals is a local commoner who has age-old commoner’s rights to graze the land.
Hello
We’ve recently had a few of our cattle move off the heaths and back to their farms for the winter.
At Long Valley, the ten Aberdeen Angus calves (which were as big as their mums by the time they left) were taken away by their farmer just after the New Year. This farmer is building up her number of Aberdeen Angus so that in a few years she will have solely this breed in her herd, so some of the male calves will be kept to become bulls and the females will become her future breeding stock. The nine cows and bull now remain on the site next to Tweseldown racecourse and will stay out all winter. We hope that all the cows should be in calf (meaning they are pregnant) as they’ve been ‘running with the bull’ all year. We anticipate that they may start to calf around the end of April/May time.
Up the hill at Caesar’s Camp, just this week the herd of 32 Hereford crosses and Aberdeen Angus crosses was reduced to just 11 individuals, as the food supply on site is not so good in the winter. All of these cows are heifers (young female cows) so they will return to their farm for now. The 11 that remain are being given supplementary mineral licks to ensure they don’t lose condition on the rough forage. In the spring, when the grasses really start growing fast - more cattle will return to graze this huge site.
At Pondtail, where our own six Dexters are staying for a few months, we have now opened them up to the main part of the site which extends right down to the Canal. They are really embracing their new heathland life, and have been reported eating gorse, heather and birch buds!
On our reserves - some of the Belted Galloways at Ancells Farm are still in their winter ‘layback’ fields where they’ve got grass left over from the summer months – and the farmer who owns them can give them supplementary food such as hay or silage as the fields are not part of the sensitive SSSI land.
At Bartley Heath in Hook, some long awaited Highland cows finally arrived last weekend to join the New Forest ponies that have been grazing there for some years. There arrival marks the end of a lot of work by Rachel and Elliott to get the fence suitable for cattle as well as just the ponies. The owner of these animals is a local commoner who has age-old commoner’s rights to graze the land.
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