THE WILD SIDE OF COWS

May is the month for blue skies and blossom, along with swifts and swallows and the occasional slow worm. It’s also the time when cows are released onto some of the Cotswolds’ most precious wildlife-life-rich sites. Sue Bradley explains why

- Sue Bradley

It’s the time of the year when cattle are turned out onto fields and hillsides across the Cotswolds, including an army of cows and steers that graze special areas to help wildlife habitats to flourish without the use of machinery.

From Greystones Farm in Bourtonon-the-Water and Crickley Hill near Gloucester, to the Commons at Minchinhampton and Rodborough and Tidenham’s Park and Poor’s Allotment, cattle are a vital tool in terms of keeping rough grass, brambles and scrub in balance, enabling native flowers and the species that depend on them to flourish in the spaces created.

Meanwhile the manure they produce provides a habitat for invertebrates such as dung beetles, which in turn provide food for bats.