Q: How do your Highland Cows help with Conservation Grazing?

A: We are working to restore Scottish native species trees to our land and our Highland Cows are part of this regeneration programme. They help prevent vegetation from becoming over-grown, their dung recycles nutrients, encouraging greater diversity in plants species and adds natural fertilisation to the land, (which in turn provides a food source for several invertebrates and insects such as dung beetles, as well as a growth source for fungi). Any seeds they have ingested are also broken down in the gut, allowing easier germination once passed through the cattle. The short legs of the Highland Cows means they can cope with very steep and uneven terrain, reaching otherwise inaccessible areas to graze. Our hills provide a variety of habitats for important species that depend on how we manage our land, from fungi, to butterflies, to mammals, to plants to birds and more.