Jess and I had quite a busy afternoon yesterday splitting some of this seasons intake of sheep into groups and moving them into different paddocks to graze.

Meanwhile the Highland cows are continuing to make inroads into the birch scrub on one of the other sites. Their continuing browsing and bashing of the scrub helps to maintain these areas as grassland and stops the scrub taking over.

Luing cattle grazing on Druridge pools. They are reducing the grass cover and plunging up the mud around the edges of the splashes which creates feeding areas for the wading birds that visit the coast line at this time of year. Every things always looks so much better on bright clear mornings such as when this was taken.

The cattle grazing is also going on apace and there is even a new recruit helping out on one site in Durham. Follow or cut and paste the link http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/video/regional/105150/

Cattle are currently grazing on 4 different reserves across the region combing them with the different grazing habits of the sheep and ponies helps to maintain and create ideal habtitat for the local wildlife.

It's that time of year again when the annual migration of stock from the hills to the lowland starts. We took delivery of the first 50 sheep from the Cheviot hills on Wednesday, these will be with us for the best part of a year grazing conservation sites and replace some of those that went away to the abbattoir this week. There are still some of last years sheep available for anyone who has an interest in naturally reared meat and would like to buy some lamb that has been reared grazing on conservation grasslands and sites of special scientific interest.