Seen and Heard: 6 Conservation Cattle

The science behind climate change and sustainability is complicated but it is important that the critical facts and the best information currently available enters the public arena. Veterinarians play a very significant role in discussing these issues with their clients, and the general public: sometimes this will involve some serious science, and sometimes lighter topics can be explored . The media to which the general public is exposed, is often guilty of playing ‘fast and loose’ with the facts. In this series, we will examine the evidence behind some of the articles and media information that appears and attempt to equip VetSalus members with background information and supporting facts, which they may use when discussing some of the more misleading or contentious statements.

It was during a recent visit to the intriguing geological formations of the National Trust’s Brimham Rocks that I came across an explanatory sign that sparked my interest; the rocks themselves were of course also very interesting. Situated near Harrogate in North Yorkshire, they have been sculpted into a variety of weird shapes and forms by over 300 million years of ongoing erosion.

But it was a sign on a noticeboard that really set me thinking.

The notice explained how a small herd of hardy beef cattle were being employed at Brimham to “eat young trees and squash bracken” and thus assist the management of the moorland. With many “green causes” being so conspicuously anti-bovine, usually with a strong focus on their methane belching liability, it was interesting to find an organisation as prominent as the National Trust, recognising the value of large ruminants in the management of the moorland ecology. Local ranger, Simon Hodgson, expands on their use on the web site: 

“Having the cattle graze the moorland is proving valuable in improving the condition of the moor. In their past two years of grazing, the cattle have already helped to control the purple moor grass, which can become a huge fire risk in time of drought,^[1] and tackle the birch saplings, ensuring that trees still grow on the heathland without it reverting to woodland. They are also helping to trample bracken rhizomes and diversify the age structure of heather, allowing us to better preserve this rare habitat.”

Large ruminants have always formed part of the ecological mix of the UK, at least until relatively recently. It is so easy to focus on the rather narrow range of wild species which currently inhabit the countryside, forgetting that the hunter gatherer lifestyle disappeared from these shores only a few thousand years ago and that large cattle species such as the ancient oxen, Aurochs, were present until perhaps 3000 years ago (and much later than that in central Europe. They disappeared because they were hunted extensively, by both stone age humans and several large carnivores but they were also captured and bred, forming one of the cornerstones of today’s hardier cattle breeds.

The role of cattle, and other ruminants, in balancing the environment by browsing some species selectively and thus reducing the tendency to revert to scrubland is becoming more recognised. Their grazing and trampling widens the range of species that thrive, thereby enhancing biodiversity, while producing quality animal protein, admittedly in small quantities, from land that can produce very little else. It is easy to reject beef production as carbon intensive when it is linked to feedlot production and the importation of foodstuffs, sometimes grown thousands of kilometers away; but the trade off between a little extra methane eructation and enhanced biodiversity is easily forgotten. The evaluation of the science at play here is, as usual, complex but the closed biological carbon cycle, in which the cattle at Brimham are involved, is an ancient one. It’s easy to blame mother nature for methane from cattle but once again it is human intervention and overconsumption which are the real culprits!

This article has used A.I. resources to search for references but these were reviewed before use and the articles have been written and edited by a human brain.

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