04/12/2011

Bill Grayson from the Morecombe Bay Conservation Grazing Company has a herd of more than 100 organic native cows, which graze an area of around 2,500 acres in the North of England...but he has no farm and no land of his own.

His cows are brought on to nature reserves and areas of special interest to hoover up unwanted grasses without damaging the rare flowers and plants. This traditional way of managing land is now unusual in the UK.

The native breeds including Red Poll and Blue Grey cattle are rotated around more than thirty sites in Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire. Some are internationally important limestone pavements, others forests, wetlands and fens. As each site is different each of the wildlife groups and organisations he works with have different requests on how the so called 'old fashioned mowers' use the land.

Caz Graham follows the annual journey of three of the older cows, Buffy, Lilian and Alice as they are moved from a grazed hay meadow on the Natural England's Gaitbarrrows Nature Reserve to an ungrazed hilly forest reserve around 15 miles away.

She also catches up with the Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Rare Breeds Survival Trust who are using a GPS collar to map the activity of one of the cows 24 hours a day.

This programme is presented by Caz Graham and produced in Birmingham by Angela Frain.