Grazing animals shape the vegetation they eat: they mould the structure of the vegetation and determine which plant species survive and how abundant they are. Much has been said about the damaging impacts of grazing, but little attention has been given to how it can be used to benefit conservation interests. The Loft and Hill of White Hamars Grazing Project was set up in 1987 to develop patterns of grazing that would favour special plants, like the Scottish primrose, Primula Scotica, as well as safeguard species-rich maritime grassland and heath.

The project was founded on the twin convictions that positive use could be made of grazing to shape the species composition and relative abundance of plants and heaths and that such grazing patterns could fit successfully into low intensity sheep farming. The intention was to find an environmentally- sensitive way of using the natural growth of coastal grasslands and heaths, without any fertiliser or pesticide use, to produce a lamb and wool crop. The over riding constraint was that the impacts of grazing should produce nature conservation benefits by maintaining the rich mixture of plants and animals and increasing the abundance of notable species.

Although it is now becoming accepted that it is possible and desirable to build specific nature conservation managements into agricultural practice, this was a very innovative idea when the Loft and Hill of White Hamars Grazing Project started. The data and experience from the 10 years of practical work here clearly demonstrates the feasibility of this approach. The 126 ha project is on the windswept northern shore of the Pentland Firth on South Walls in Orkney. Of this, 80 ha of grazed grasslands and heaths make up the core of the project: approximately 25% is previously improved agricultural grassland, while 75% is a mosaic of maritime grasslands, heaths and mires with high conservation value. The Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Hill of White Hamars Wildlife Reserve makes up 60% of this area, while the rest is privately owned. This whole core area is managed as one unit. Roy Harris and Mary Jones set about constructing a pattern of land use that would meet nature conservation objectives as well as support a healthy and productive sheep flock. The Scottish Primrose, found only in Caithness, Sutherland and Orkney, was identified as the most important individual species. Conservation efforts had to be focused on this scarce endemic plant but it was recognised that the whole range of other plant and animal species sharing its habitat should also be safeguarded if at all possible. A further aim was to increase the wildlife value of the grasslands that had been agriculturally improved.

A critical part of the philosophy underpinning the project is the concept that good conservation management of vegetation should allow plants to flower and set seed. This is important to maintain genetic diversity, to increase the abundance of flowering herbs and to provide plentiful pollen and nectar for invertebrates. Flowering heaths and meadows are also places of great beauty and merit protection for that alone. However, letting plants flower and produce seed is not enough: there is also a need for grazing animals to produce short, open areas suitable for seedling establishment.

Experience and trials here show that leaving the richest grasslands and heaths ungrazed in spring and summer allows flower-filled, species-rich grasslands and heaths to develop. These are also good habitat for nesting birds and many invertebrates. But this period without grazing must be followed by a heavy grazing pressure in autumn and winter to remove the year’s crop of grasses and herbs. This heavy grazing after flowering and seed set is essential to maintain the vegetation structures necessary to ensure species richness and encourage abundance of flowers in subsequent years.

Achieving sufficient autumn and winter grazing impacts, but without too much grazing on dwarf shrubs like heather, while maintaining a healthy sheep flock, are the hardest parts of the equation. The key is careful timing: leaving areas ungrazed long enough for seed to set, but grazing them heavily before they are flattened and damaged by salt-laden autumn and winter storms. It is a critical balancing act, made all the more difficult here because of the violence and unpredictability of Orkney weather.

Once grazing the richest conservation areas has been completed, the ewes return to lamb on the previously improved inbye grass fields, where they remain until the end of August. Some home-grown hay and bought concentrates are fed around lambing when necessary to maintain sheep health and well-being. This grazing strategy has proved very successful for the Scottish primrose. It has produced grassland and heaths within which the primrose has been able to thrive, even taking into account periodic setbacks due to extreme weather conditions. The known Scottish primrose plants have increased from 659 to 3316 over 10 years.

In addition to the Scottish primrose, over 40 other species have shown impressive increases in flowering and abundance under the same management regime.

The coastal grasslands and heaths have become a flower-filled panorama from spring until late summer, from the earliest primroses until the last of the Devil’s bit scabious. Abundant marsh marigold, northern marsh orchid and meadowsweet occur in wetter ground, carpets of spring squill, bird’s footed trefoil and heath spotted orchid cover cliff tops, the wetter heaths turn golden with bog asphodel and grazing-sensitive kidney vetch and wild angelica have recolonised some seasonally grazed pastures. Although grazed in spring and summer, or cut for hay, the agriculturally improved fields have also become more diverse and each field now supports some 70 species of plants. No fertiliser or pesticide has been used for at least 10 years and this has allowed herbs to compete more effectively with grasses, as well as reducing the aggressive vigour of weed species like docks. Wild flowers have recolonised from the nearby coastal areas. The hayfield in particular has been transformed into a flower-filled meadow by colonising northern marsh orchid, heath spotted orchid, meadow vetchling, tufted and bush vetches, yellow hay rattle, ladies smock and forget-me-nots.

The abundance of flowers has allowed a dramatic increase in the number of insects: summer grasslands now hum with the sound of bees, many species of fly and hoverflies. Butterflies, too, are more numerous and much more widespread.

The successful conservation management is based on the natural productivity of unfertilised grasslands and heaths. Accordingly, agricultural productivity is not as high as on an equivalent purely commercially managed farm: nevertheless, between 200 and 240 lambs are produced annually. The reduced livestock production is balanced by the Agri-Environment payments made on 58 ha of land under the Habitat Creation Scheme. The low-intensity, environmentally-friendly land use pattern demonstrated here generates striking conservation benefits within a framework of extensive agriculture. This is directly relevant to the development ideas about the future of agriculture and wildlife conservation, especially in remote areas, and is particularly timely in view of the continued development and reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The ideas, experience and data generated by the project are already being used in planning the management of other Scottish Wildlife Trust reserves. In particular, the management principles developed here are guiding the establishment of grazing regimes combining nature conservation with low intensity commercial sheep production on large sheep farms owned by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in Ayrshire and in Kintyre. Practical conservation management advice has also been provided to the Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department at the conservation stages of their Habitat Creation and Countryside Premium Schemes as well as their implementation.

Local presentations, field visits and advisory management notes are all part of a demonstration programme designed to present the principles and practices of various aspects of the project to a wide audience, including government agencies, conservation bodies and farming interests. The Loft and Hill of White Hamars Grazing Project is a partnership between the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage and Roy Harris and Mary Jones; bringing together the skills, experience and resources of private consultants, a voluntary nature conservation body and the Scottish governmental conservation agency. Liaison and training visits have been arranged for local SOAFED staff, covering the identification and implementation of conservation requirements for both Habitat Creation Schemes and for the Countryside Premium Scheme. In addition, payments under the Habitat Creation Scheme make a substantial contribution to the project funding.
Courtesy of Roy Harris and Mary Jones
For further details, please contact:
Roy Harris and Mary Jones
Fax. 01856 701 444