Our Grazer of the Week this week is Gwydion the Welsh White, who grazes sites around South Wales for the Woodland Trust.

Gwydion and the herd of seven Welsh whites are owned by the Woodland Trust. The cattle conservation graze at Coed Tregib, Coed Gwempa, Coed Maesmelin & other sites near Neath.

The cattle are important to the Woodland Trust for control of soft rush species which are becoming dominant on some sites and allow better spread of meadow sweet,  lesser spearwort, hemp agrimony, common spotted orchid, sneezewort, ragged robin, blue green leaved sedges, knapweed and to prevent the dominance of tree species such as willow and Alder.

At Coed Trygib, the cattle are confined to the wettest areas along riparian corridors to aid establishment of  purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) and the rare dark bush cricket, Philidoptera grieseoapteraas (at Coed Gwempa) as well as maintenance of coarse vegetation in woodland/wood pasture areas to aid distribution of Blue ground beetle at Coed Maesmelin.

At a new site at Neath the cattle will help to establish and maintain areas of wood pasture beneficial to lower plant life species – this will be their main home.

For assistance in setting up conservation grazing similar to this, you can contact PONT.

Don’t forget you can submit your animals to become our next Grazer of the Week by tagging @pontcymru on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #grazeroftheweek.