New Cattle on Shawford Down

Walkers on Shawford Down will have noticed new black and white cattle hard at working keeping the grass under control.

They come from a small family run farm which specialises in grazing native rare breed cattle on local nature reserves for parish councils, district councils and Hampshire County Council.

Breeds grazed include Dexters (black) and British White. You can read more about those breeds at www.dextercattle.co.uk/ and www.britishwhitecattle.co.uk/

At their home farm, there are dogs running about in the yard, so the cattle should be used to dogs and barking. Many of the other nature reserve sites which they graze also have plenty of dog walkers.

Following an incident where one of the cattle was a little too frisky, it was agreed to remove the two horned animals (both black) from the down.

The plan is for the cattle to be with us on Shawford Down until 31st March 2014.

Reprinted from the March 2014 Parish Magazine