Devon SSSI nature reserve and eco lodges - Maggie's Blog
11 August
Grass is always greener...
Time to report on the cows. Well, they did their bit, or should that be bite? We let them into the second section of Popehouse Moor from 23 Jul, but by 3 August they'd eaten all that was easy, and started looking for greener pastures.
And that revealed another weekness in the fencing between the reserve and our biggest field, lower newland moor, where they usually graze.
Not so serious, except that while they could get out of the reserve they couldn't get back into the field they wanted and so went up and down the bank, until they got into a neighbours field at the end. No real harm done, but that sort of thing just doesn't do for all sorts of reasons, be they bank management, stock safety or movement restrictions for neighbouring farmers.
The cows had to go home to Higher Punchardon, and we had some urgent fencing to do. Ian and his nephew Tim did the hard work. It's too wet to get machinery down there, so nothing for it but manpower and the big thumper once again borrowed from Andrew at Higher Punchardon.
Going rootling around in the willows has once again shown us how much is encroachment and that scrub bashing has to be a top priority, after grazing. But it's not the time of year for that yet, and right now we just need to repair the fence so we can have the cows back again - that grass is probably not far off where it should be, but it'll grow again before the end of the season.
Here's Ian and Tim hard at work, and here's a shot of the most-grazed bit of Popehouse Moor.