Brimham Rocks: Cattle introduced to popular heritage and visitor area for conservation grazing

The Belted Galloways will be on the moorland from now until October in the first instance, as an important part of the site’s moorland management plan.

They will browse the young birch saplings and coarser grasses maintaining a varied structure of heather, improving the habitat for ground nesting birds.

In addition, the cattle will help prevent the further growth of large trees which dry out the moorland and they will introduce droppings and poach the ground to diversify the habitat for invertebrates and improve the soil quality by increasing bacteria and fungi content.

Alec Boyd, Area Ranger at Brimham Rocks said: “We are really excited to be reintroducing cattle to Brimham for conservation grazing. It is a very important step to improving the condition of the moor. The cattle will help to control the expansion of invasive birch saplings, trample bracken rhizomes and diversify the age structure of heather, allowing us to better preserve this rare habitat.

“We are using cattle instead of sheep or horses because the cattle rips and pulls rather than nibbles at the vegetation. They also eat on the move, a little here and a little there, and are less selective than sheep or horses – they aren’t as choosy about what they eat. This helps create a varied age structure that will benefit other species that call moorland their home."

Brimham Rocks is a ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’ (SSSI) and this status is used to protect the natural, environmental, or geological heritage of the British Isles from development, pollution, or insensitive land management.

Natural heather moorland habitats are extremely rare - rarer than rainforest.

According to the Moorland Association, 75 per cent of the world’s remaining heather moorland is found in Britain and that habitat has been declining rapidly.

The moorland at Brimham has the distinction of being home to three local varieties: ling heather, bell heather and cross-leaved heath. With its rapid growth and extended root system, if left unattended, bracken will damage the heather moorland beyond repair.

To manage the cattle, a fence has been erected around their roaming area on the south and north moors and to maintain Brimham moorland as open access land, gates have been installed on public rights of way as well as on the most popular desire lines.

The Belted Galloway Society says the breed, which resulted from crossing the ancient Galloway with the Dutch Belted cow in the 17th and 18th centuries, is currently experiencing an upsurge in popularity because it is well-equipped to thrive outdoors in any climate and lives far longer than other cattle often well into their twenties.