Here at Lancashire Wildlife Trust our conservation team isn't only made up of people, but we also have a dedicated band of conservation grazing livestock; cattle, sheep, goats and ponies. These amazing animals act as nature’s lawnmowers, grazing on plants which could become dominant or invasive if left unchecked. 

Whilst each species graze differently our herd of rare breed English longhorn cattle specialise in rough grazing, tearing up chunks of vegetation as they wrap their tongues around it and pull it out of the ground to eat. This creates a varied sward height, and small areas of bare ground, which is perfect for a wide range of our native flora and fauna to thrive, creating a diverse and healthy habitat. Their large size also allows them to trample areas of encroaching scrub which could threaten to take over. 

Essentially the cattle are replicating the action of wild-roaming large herbivores such as aurochs, now lost to our landscape, which would have once done a similar role. 

Find out more about our conservation grazing project

All summer long you can find our cattle happily getting on with their job on sites including Brockholes, Lunt Meadows, Cutacre, Heysham Moss, Freeman’s Pools, Lightshaw Meadows and Bickershaw Country Park. 

But come winter many of these sites become too wet for the cattle, and so they head off to the seaside for a winter holiday. 

All along the north Merseyside coast, around Formby, is a beautiful stretch of nationally important dune grassland habitat, which is just perfect for the cattle’s winter home. The sand hills at the National Trust’s Ravenmeols Sandhills and Sefton Council’s Ainsdale and Birkdale Sandhills sites, keep dry enough underfoot for the cattle, which the cattle repay by providing a vital winter grazing service. 

Along with important plant species, these areas are also home to rare wildlife including sand lizards, the UK’s rarest lizard, and natterjack toads which are a European Protected Species. 

Gordon White, Principle Officer, Coast & Countryside, Sefton Borough Council said: “Each winter, we welcome these grazing animals onto our coastal Local Nature Reserves at Ainsdale and Birkdale, but it’s not a holiday for them. They spend each day in the harsh winter, grazing on the dunes, which helps us to manage the protected areas for nature conservation as we aim towards achieving favourable condition. They reduce the growth of vegetation – especially the less desirable species that threaten the nature conservation value of the nature reserves. Their movement around the reserves also serves to break up the ground exposing microclimates and micro habitats of open sand. Grazing on sand dunes is a proven tool for conservation managers and encourages a more diverse and typical variety of plant species to grow. It provides the right conditions for our rare botanical and animal dune specialists such as natterjack toads, sand lizards and northern tiger beetles to thrive.” 

You may also notice that our cattle wear special collars. These are part of a virtual fencing system called Nofence, that uses solar-powered GPS devices to monitor each cow's exact location. This allows virtual boundaries to be created which the cows are trained not to cross. Not only does this allow us to target precisely where the cattle are grazing, but we can effectively move the cattle away from any risks or pockets of sensitive vegetation. 

This technology also allows the cattle to graze in areas that do not have a physical fence, such as Ravenmeols Sandhills. Establishing fencing here would be prohibitively costly, could create an unwanted stabilising influence on the naturally dynamic and shifting dune system, and could also provide a barrier to migrating wildlife. However, we know that this area was historically grazed due to the presence of pre-historic aurochs hoofprints preserved in the silt beds on Formby beach. The cattle are helping to re-create these lost natural processes. 

Albert Peacock a Ranger at National Trust Formby said: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with Lancashire Wildlife Trust and their herd of English longhorn cattle at Formby. Thanks to the virtual fencing technology, the herd can graze wilder areas with the flexibility to move them around. In just a short time, they have already opened up areas of the dune grasslands, creating the light and space rare dune wildlife and flowers need to thrive. We’re seeing more bare patches of sand appear too - perfect for sand lizards to bask, hunt and burrow when they come out of hibernation. It’s been a real success, and we hope to see the herd return every winter.” 

Once spring has sprung, the cattle will say goodbye to their winter homes and move back to their summer grazing sites where they will form a band of rotational grazers helping both plants and wildlife to thrive in their wake. 

More questions? Check out our conservation grazing FAQs