A survey of cattle-grazed woodlands in Britain Helen M. Armstrong1,3, Liz Poulsom1, Tom Connolly2 and Andrew Peace2 1 Woodland Ecology Branch and 2 Statistics and Computing Branch, Forest Research, Northern Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian, EH25 9SY 3Email: [email protected] Final report October 2003 Table of Contents Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1 Methods...........................................................................................................................................1 Data collection.............................................................................................................................1 Data analysis ...............................................................................................................................2 Results .............................................................................................................................................4 Number and location of sites .......................................................................................................5 Ownership of sites........................................................................................................................5 Woodland type .............................................................................................................................6 Woodland, and total site, area.....................................................................................................7 Reasons for grazing cattle in woodlands.....................................................................................8 Exclosures and monitoring ........................................................................................................10 Other grazing mammals.............................................................................................................10 Breed of cattle............................................................................................................................11 Stocking season..........................................................................................................................12 Cattle grazing pressure..............................................................................................................12 Tree regeneration.......................................................................................................................13 Browsing on saplings.................................................................................................................18 Achievement of objectives of grazing with cattle.......................................................................18 Observations on stock husbandry, cattle behaviour and impacts on trees and ground vegetation...................................................................................................................................19 Discussion .....................................................................................................................................21 Number and location of sites .....................................................................................................21 Ownership of sites......................................................................................................................21 Woodland type ...........................................................................................................................21 Woodland, and total site, area...................................................................................................21 Reasons for grazing cattle in woodlands...................................................................................22 Exclosures and monitoring ........................................................................................................22 Other grazing mammals.............................................................................................................22 Breed of cattle............................................................................................................................22 Stocking season..........................................................................................................................23 Cattle grazing pressure..............................................................................................................23 Tree regeneration.......................................................................................................................23 Browsing on saplings.................................................................................................................24 Future research needs................................................................................................................25 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................26 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................28 References .....................................................................................................................................29 Appendix 1 Blank page from the site database.............................................................................30 Appendix 2 Data recording form for site visits.............................................................................31 Appendix 3 Guidance notes for site visits.....................................................................................33 Appendix 4. Location, ownership, management aims, area and type of cattle-grazed woodlands. .......................................................................................................................................................36 Appendix 5. Reasons for grazing cattle in woodlands..................................................................41 Appendix 6. Details of exclosures and monitoring.......................................................................46 Appendix 7. Relative densities of grazing mammals, other than cattle, at the sites visited..........51 Appendix 8. Breed, and stocking rate, of cattle at all sites. ..........................................................52 Appendix 9. Details of tree regeneration at all sites. ....................................................................56 Appendix 10. Relative browsing preferences for different species of sapling..............................62 Appendix 11. Objectives of grazing with cattle: achievement, or otherwise................................63 Appendix 12. Observations on stock husbandry, cattle behaviour, tree regeneration and cattle impacts on ground vegetation. ......................................................................................................65 Introduction Cattle are thought to provide biodiversity benefits in woodlands when grazed at low density (Dennis1998) since they eat vegetation of a low digestibility and break up vegetation mats with their hooves. This is thought to be beneficial for tree regeneration and as well as leading to a greater variety of vegetation types and associated invertebrate and bird assemblages. Because of these perceived benefits there is increasing interest in the use of cattle as a tool for nature conservation management in woodlands. Little information is available, however, with which the impacts of a given cattle grazing regime on a particular woodland can be predicted. Indeed there have been virtually no published studies of the impact of cattle on woodlands in Britain and very few in other countries. Additionally, there is little information available on the current use of woodlands for cattle grazing in Britain. This study, therefore, had the following objectives: • Gain an overview of the number, distribution, size and type of sites where cattle are currently being grazed in woodlands in mainland Britain. • Collate information on the reason for stocking with cattle, the cattle stocking regime, breed of cattle and the presence of other grazing animals at each site. • Collate observational information from site managers on cattle behaviour in woodlands. • Collate observational information on tree regeneration in the presence of cattle. • If possible, draw conclusions about the impacts of cattle on woodlands and draw out generalisations about the effect of different stocking regimes. • Recommend further work to improve our ability to predict the impacts of different grazing regimes of cattle on different woodland types The aim was not necessarily to include all cattle-grazed woodlands in Britain and, in fact, by the end of the data gathering period in 2002 there remained many leads still to be followed up. Rather, the aim was to collect a sample large enough to be representative of cattle-grazed woodland sites in Britain. Methods Data collection An Access database was set up to receive information on woodland sites in mainland Britain where cattle were being grazed (a blank data entry form is shown in Appendix 1). All types of woodland, from park woodland to plantations of exotic conifers, were included in the survey. At the start of the project in 2000, details of the survey were sent to relevant organisations with a request for information on sites and site contacts. Between 2000 and 2002, land managers