It seems counterintuitive, but wild flowers need grazing.
Without grazing (or cutting), grassland habitats will begin to develop into scrub, and ultimately secondary woodland. Without grazing to remove the grass growth each year, grasses begin to out-compete the wild flowers within the sward. After a few years, this is exacerbated by a build-up of dead, un-grazed grass. The wild flowers are smothered, and cannot compete for the space and sunlight which they need to flower and set seed. Ultimately, slower-growing scrub species begin to take over, and the wildflowers and grassland are lost.
Grazing livestock will of course eat some of the flowers, but it's a balance - if the livestock pressure is right enough flowers will set seed each year whilst the grass growth is kept in-check, and the habitat will be maintained. On ancient pasture which has always been grazed, livestock are preferable to mechanical mowing because mowers will damage anthills. Livestock can also get to areas that a tractor can't!
Cattle are especially good at 'conservation grazing', because of the way in which they graze: instead of nibbling with their teeth, cattle wrap their tongue around a tuft of grass and rip it off. This leaves behind a varied, tussocky structure to the sward, with some short areas and some long areas. A varied sward provides more opportunities for insects and other fauna, as there will be localised, subtle differences in temperature, humidity and shelter across the grassland.
The cattle are also vitally important on the Commons because there are several species associated with the ponds which are dependent on trampling hooves around the edges of the ponds. This tramping, which happens when the cattle take a drink from the ponds, creates bare mud with no competition from other plants, which is absolutely essential for some of the Commons' rarest species to survive. You can read about these species under the 'Wildlife' menu of this website.
If you see a problem with the cattle grazing on the common, please report this via graziers' phone numbers on the contacts page.
Without grazing (or cutting), grassland habitats will begin to develop into scrub, and ultimately secondary woodland. Without grazing to remove the grass growth each year, grasses begin to out-compete the wild flowers within the sward. After a few years, this is exacerbated by a build-up of dead, un-grazed grass. The wild flowers are smothered, and cannot compete for the space and sunlight which they need to flower and set seed. Ultimately, slower-growing scrub species begin to take over, and the wildflowers and grassland are lost.
Grazing livestock will of course eat some of the flowers, but it's a balance - if the livestock pressure is right enough flowers will set seed each year whilst the grass growth is kept in-check, and the habitat will be maintained. On ancient pasture which has always been grazed, livestock are preferable to mechanical mowing because mowers will damage anthills. Livestock can also get to areas that a tractor can't!
Cattle are especially good at 'conservation grazing', because of the way in which they graze: instead of nibbling with their teeth, cattle wrap their tongue around a tuft of grass and rip it off. This leaves behind a varied, tussocky structure to the sward, with some short areas and some long areas. A varied sward provides more opportunities for insects and other fauna, as there will be localised, subtle differences in temperature, humidity and shelter across the grassland.
The cattle are also vitally important on the Commons because there are several species associated with the ponds which are dependent on trampling hooves around the edges of the ponds. This tramping, which happens when the cattle take a drink from the ponds, creates bare mud with no competition from other plants, which is absolutely essential for some of the Commons' rarest species to survive. You can read about these species under the 'Wildlife' menu of this website.
If you see a problem with the cattle grazing on the common, please report this via graziers' phone numbers on the contacts page.