The Arrival of the highland heifers

On 13^th June 2025 three pedigree highland heifers were delivered to the pond area, initially it will be grazed for three months to see what level of impact the cows have on the vegetation. The cows are fitted with collars that limit their movements to a certain area so grazing can be concentrated in a particular section of the site.

Dear Diary

I arrived at the pond about 11 am, cloudy but warm. Through a gate there’s a gravel track toward the pond for about 80m, this track is parallel with the Avocet scrape, there’s always bird watchers along the edge of this track, I think the Avocets are the draw. Richard confirmed he was on route with the cows. Already on site were James and Linda, James is from the NT and Linda is a local volunteer who concentrates on looking out for the Avocets. Linda lives locally and is on Avocet watch most days; they have a fence around the scrape to deter foxes; they’ve lost chicks to them before.

Richard arrived; we fitted some halters to the cows and walked them from the trailer through the gates and into the pond area, they were very calm given their long journey and I must admit they looked at home immediately tucking into cleavers that had climbed up a fallen willow, they wandered off into the reeds to explore so and Richard and I left leaving James and Linda admiring the new visitors.