The British countryside, often romanticised as wild and untouched, has been shaped over time by human activity. Many of the UK’s most treasured habitats, including grassland, heathland, and upland moor, are what conservationists like to call ‘semi-natural’. These landscapes are thought of as ‘wild’ spaces and offer a home to an abundance of wildlife, but only exist as the result of millennia of interaction between humans and the grazing animals we farm with.

The culture of farming started in the Neolithic Age, around 6,000 years ago. These early farmers introduced domesticated livestock, and as they did so they gradually replaced native wild herbivores like aurochs, forest bison and elk. The slow march towards extinction of each of these big beasts, and many other animals, came about partly through hunting, but also through habitat change. Slowly but surely humans and their animals sculpted the landscapes around them. Land was drained, trees felled, ground dug and crops planted.

The landscapes we live in and love today are virtually all the result of this move to farming and the deliberate managing of areas of open land with domesticated grazing animals. It’s taken thousands of years to curate this place we call wild Devon. 

Eco engineers

Viewed like this then the grazing animals we choose to keep can be seen as today’s main ecological engineers, shaping the look of most of our landscapes and determining the wildlife they support. The only large wild-living herbivores remaining today, apart from a few scattered populations of wild boar, are deer, which also play a significant part in shaping some geographical locations (mainly woodlands), although not always positively. 

This is the reason that Devon Wildlife Trust uses domesticated grazers to either create new habitat or else maintain the landscapes in which nature can thrive. But this type of management – often called, ‘conservation grazing’ – isn’t simply a matter of letting a few cows loose on a nature reserve. There are definitely ‘horses for courses’ with the style of land management. 

Many of DWT’s 60 nature reserves are grazed by domesticated animals. In the main we deploy cattle (cows) and ponies, while sheep are used at just a few locations. 

The crunching, munching, trampling and dunging of each animal has different kinds of impacts on the land, influencing which plants will thrive, and at which heights and densities:

Cattle use their rough tongues to wrap around and rip off mouthfuls of grass and although predominantly grass eaters, they also readily browse scrub and more woody species. Their larger mouths make it harder for them to selectively graze plants. Their weight and bulk means they can create ground disturbance and are happy pushing through thick vegetation, making them ideal for sites where brambles and gorse restrict the movement of other grazers.  

Ponies are in many ways like cattle, although their prehensile upper lip allows them to be much more selective feeders, able to pick among the greenery for what they wish to concentrate upon. Being lighter than cattle, they also have less impact on the ground and its compaction. However, they do create ‘latrine’ areas which concentrates their dung, causing patches of highly enriched soils on which many wildflowers find it difficult to survive.   

Sheep are highly selective grazers, using their small mouths and teeth to nibble their most favoured plants. They undoubtedly have a role to play in conservation grazing, and certainly have played a significant role in shaping the landscape, but on DWT reserves they are our least favoured and used. Sheep will concentrate on eating wildflowers, and by preference will eat ‘sweet’ plants, leaving the less palatable species untouched. Sheep are also most prone of the grazers to disturbance by dogs. Goats can play a similar role to sheep, but are not currently grazed on any DWT reserves.

Managed success 

The key to successful conservation grazing management is choosing the right type of animal, at the right time of year, for the right site and deploying them in the right numbers.  

Across most Devon Wildlife Trust nature reserves this means we most often select from a small range of cattle breeds. We don’t own cattle and instead work with local farmers. They provide us with grazing cattle from breeds including Red Devons, Belted Galloways, Welsh Blacks and Dexters: traditional, hardy breeds able to cope with our rough, unimproved grassland and moorland sites.       

When it comes to ponies, then Dartmoor and Exmoor ponies are our preferred choice. Again, they possess the versatility and toughness to survive on our nature reserves. We do own our own small herd of Exmoor ponies – you may have seen them at places including Bystock Pools, Andrew’s Wood or Meeth Quarry nature reserves. 

Grazing with sheep tends to be limited to a few of our moorland reserves including Emsworthy Mire and Bellever Moor & Meadows, plus quieter parts of the Exeter Valley Parks.  

I sometimes get asked why does Devon Wildlife Trust use farm animals on its nature reserves? But our use of grazing animals doesn’t follow conventional farming practices. We use animals in low numbers over large areas – often allowing just a handful of cattle of ponies to range over whole compartments within sites, sometimes across the whole of a nature reserve. Any decision on whether to graze or not is also always based on whether the animals’ presence will benefit wildlife. Farming and food production is never the primary consideration. 

So, where are grazing cows, ponies and sheep making a difference to the fortunes of Devon’s nature? Here are just two among many examples. 

Pastures new 

The future for grazing animals on our nature reserves may be about to change. Until quite recently, conservation grazing has primarily focussed on open places. Grasslands, moorlands and heathlands are where you are most likely to have encountered grazing animals at a DWT-managed site. But now there is a move to less defined and controlled grazing areas, re-wilding stock to allow them to act more like the large wild herbivores which once existed. This means allowing grazing animals to move through habitats and across whole nature reserves, not just into open areas, but in woodlands too.  

The grazers themselves might also be about to change. In July 2022 Kent Wildlife Trust released three European bison into a large woodland nature reserve at West Blean, near Canterbury. Introducing large wild herbivores, the size of which haven’t been seen roaming the UK for more than 2,000 years, was a fascinating move. Their impact on the woodland and the wildlife it supports is being keenly watched.   

Bison and other conservation grazers like the ponies and cattle you’ll find on Devon Wildlife Trust nature reserves aren’t romantic relics of a long-gone countryside. Their munching, movement and dung dropping are vital tools in the work of UK conservation. By maintaining habitats, boosting biodiversity, and preserving cultural landscapes, they bridge between our ancient wild past, our present modern pastoral landscape, and a future ‘Wilder Devon’.  

Being around grazers 

Grazing cows and ponies are an integral part of the day-to-day management of Devon Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves. To let them go about their important work, please: 

• Do not approach grazing animals – give them room
• Do not feed them – they already have enough to eat!
• Keep dogs on a short lead at all times
• Leave field gates as you find them 

Find out more about visiting our 60 wildlife havens.