Cragend : Monitoring and Results

Grey Blue CattleThe cattle were condition scored before and after grazing Cragend, so that it could be seen whether the rough grass of the site had any detrimental effect upon the performance of the livestock. This assessment showed, on average, a slight drop in the condition of the animals when they came off the site at the end of the grazing season. However this might have been partially attributable to wet weather conditions during August.

While the cattle were on the site, detailed daily records of the movement of the stock were made at varying times of day throughout the grazing season. The site was sectioned into seven areas for the purposes of this monitoring, and the records relate to the location of the majority of the herd on the site, and their activity. This information can be used to identify the areas of the site frequented by the stock and what their daily behaviour pattern is, which can be compared to post grazing vegetation monitoring (see below) to help infer accurate overall conclusions regarding the impact of the grazing on the site.

The stock movement results from both the 2003 and 2004 grazing seasons suggested that the cattle concentrated on the molinia dominated areas, and that they spend little time on the sensitive mire and heather areas. In addition the stock tended to lie up in the bracken stands, which could have the effect of crushing growth and preventing spread in the longer term.

Once the cattle came off the site, vegetation monitoring was carried out. At Cragend this was done using three fixed transects, with recordings of percentage molinia cover and percentage grazed within a 2m arc taken at 25m intervals. The locations of these points were recorded, ensuring that data was taken from the same point each time. The data from 2003 and 2004 could be compared to each other and to baseline data for the site in order to assess the impact of the cattle grazing on the vegetation. This comparison indicated that slightly more molinia was grazed during the 2004 season than in the 2003 season, which was expected due to the higher stocking density on the site in this second season.

General observations suggest that molinia has become less dominant in the sward across the site as a whole; this was verified by a repeat in 2005 of a grazing index survey carried out in 2002.