Selective grazing by sheep to help keep scrub at bay?

[Deb London]

I had to do a double take today when I found these sheep in a nature reserve.

I tried to research this. It might be in order to maintain a grassland area free from woody plants. I also read that certain breeds of sheep "graze more selectively".

Are these sheep doing this job and is this a certain special, possible traditional, breed that does this job well?



An extra information would be good.

[Gill Catton]

Cant help you massively here but to say that my old boss the late great Dr Charlie Gibson was using sheep grazing in his long term studies into arable reversion to calcareous grassland. He varying the intensity of the grazing and its impacts both on scrub development and appearance of typical calcareous grassland species.

He died before he could finish it though and I'm not sure if anyone else has picked up on it.

Certainly though sheep are sometimes used for conservation grazing...

[aeshna5]

I vaguely remember on a visit to College Lake quite a few years back they had several Soay Sheep employed to open up some habitat.

[Deb London]

Thanks for the info. Gill. That's sad that he didn't finish that work.
Thanks aeshna5.

[earthdragon64]

I don't know the breed of sheep in the photo, but it may be that either they graze certain plants which is why they are there, or that they graze in general keeping the grass low.

Does the Nature Reserve have any specific species that it is known for, or is it just a general Reserve? Some species of Butterfly benefit from grazing in the right amounts at the right times, as do things like Lesser Butterfly Orchids.

I know that the National Trust for Scotland used to use Hebridean sheep on parts of Culloden battlefield because they kept shrubby, woody plants in check. I don't know if they still do, I haven't been since the new visitor centre was built a couple of years ago. It's the anniversary soon, so I may go and have a look.

I've also seen Soay sheep, which originally came from the St Kilda island group, used to keep the grass and other vegetation in check around an old abandoned village which was re-discovered fairly recently.

Regards, Audrey.

[solus]

Some Nature Reserves use cattle or ponies too as part of the "management team" - there are a small herd of Belted Galloways (cattle) shared between a few reserves in this area and Minsmere RSPB Reserve at one time had ponies from a semi-wild foreign breed (can't remember what they were) as they were specialist feeders which helped in the marshland/reedbed fringes.

[darrenm]

a few of the sites i have worked on use Hebridean Sheep for grazing, A because they are very, very hardy and B providing they are rotatated on a regular basis they really help to keep vegitation under control and dont do a great deal of damage to a lot of the flowering plant species and communities and C because they are less high maintinance than a lot of other types of sheep. They also are a type of sheep that lamb outdoors and do not need lambing sheds like a lot of sheep breeds. Overall it saves on the cost of cutting with machines and removes some of the need for spot spraying or weed wiping herbicides over large areas of ground. You can also be fairly selective in your grazing management programme and just graze off an area of ground you want and keep them in the area with electric fences.

A friend this summer was working on his thesis on the grazing preferences of Hebridean Sheep on sand dune plants but i do not know what his results are yet but can drop him an email if you are interested in the results.

[Farplace]

Another good sheep breed is the Manx Loghtan. Very hardy and in it's truest form, an ancient breed. They lamb in the summer and do not need regularly shearing as they generally "moult" and just need plucking by hand.
They are a pleasing shade of brown and the males especially have the most incredible horns. However, they do have a habit of being able to get over even the biggest dry stone walls......

[Deb London]

Very interesting everyone. Thank you!

In answer to your question Audrey, there are orchids and the reserve also mentions butterflies as one of its highlights, but these are White Admirals and possible Purple Emperors. I think these are woodland species, so maybe it's for the orchids.

They were lovely sheep, btw. Very good natured and trusting. I will try and find out the breed.

[Deb London]

They are possibly Shetland Sheep being used here, but willing to be proved wrong.