Joe Ryder
Joe Ryder
Bracken encroachment onto species rich grassland is a constant battle through the summer months on many of the GWT reserves and reducing its ferocity and smothering capability can be a never-ending time-consuming task through the summer period! For this reason, GWT have been trialling a more natural approach using conservation grazing with cattle and ponies for a six week period from the end of June.
The Frost Fields form part of Pentwyn farm SSSI grassland reserve. The two fields covering approximately four acres towards the southeast of Pentwyn Farm reserve, with a permissive path through the top edge of the nearest field. The management of these two fields is slightly different to the rest of Pentwyn Farm as they are not cut for hay and are managed with light grazing through the year to maintain the species rich diversity. Due to not being cut for hay, one of the main features that has established over decades is the ancient ant hills formed by meadow ants. These have created a micro habitat for a diverse range of plants, invertebrates, and reptiles such as the wonderful Slow Worm.
Joe Ryder
The presence of the ant hills makes it more challenging to mechanically control bracken encroachment, as tractors and even All-Terrain Vehicles (“ATVs”) can cause damage through compaction from wheels and the bracken roller. For this reason, we are investigating the impact of large grazing herbivores as a “natural bracken bashing method”.
On the 29th of June, six GWT cattle and our two Exmoor ponies were moved onto Frost Fields SSSI. The cattle weigh approx. 650-750 Kg each and the ponies around 300 Kg each, so that’s nearly five tons of bracken bashers moving around the reserve 24 hours a day for six weeks! The cattle and ponies do not actively graze the bracken, they bash and bruise the stems (which eventually weakens the underground rhizomes), whilst searching out more tasty forage below the dense canopy.
They had a short weekend break in another field over this period for a health and welfare check as bracken is poisonous to many herbivore species if over consumed. All looked well and we moved them back on!
Joe Ryder
Under the Natura 2000 project we carried out pollarding on the Small Leaved Limes within the hedgerows of the field. Opening up the canopy in this way increases woodland light levels and benefits ground flora, while making it more productive for grazing. Historically, this practice was carried out to provide tree fodder.
The pollards now have two years’ of growth on them. It didn’t take long for the cattle to find the regrowth on the pollards and they spent a couple of hours a day, browsing and increasing light levels within the hedgerow and dense regrowth.
Over the period I have taken lots of photos to record the impact on bracken coverage and observed livestock condition. For now it’s checked the growth of the bracken, however we wont know the longer term impact until the following summer bracken growth period. It’s certainly saved a lot of sweat and Horse Fly bites!
