A full version of this article appears in the magazine.

Last autumn some beef from a group of farmers went on sale in their local independent supermarket store. Shoppers, local restaurants and the media took notice. Just another story of food miles and the local economy? Take a closer look – this was in fact the start of an experiment by the National Trust in Pembrokeshire, one that attempts to reconnect heathland management to production, the latest step for a leading nature conservation project that had started some 20 years earlier.

 

Pembrokeshire has its fair share of Wales’ lowland and coastal heaths, and since the 1990s we’ve been working with local farmers to reinstate grazing to them. Some of the largest expanses of coastal heathland in Britain can be found here, with exposed seaward slopes covered in classic maritime heath, the gorse and heather cropped short or sculpted into waves by the effects of salt spray and wind. Further inland, the heath is more diverse botanically, with heath bedstraw, heath milkwort, heath spotted orchid and lousewort all present, along with grasses and sedges in the marshy areas.

 

Conservation in action

In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, these places were used by local people for grazing, the cutting of gorse and the digging of clay. All has changed now – many have become unused and overgrown.

 

We’ve needed to be directly involved with livestock to bring derelict heaths back. The  project Gweundir Byw Sir Benfro – Pembrokeshire’s Living Heathlands covered about 40% of the lowland and coastal heath in the county. In their overgrown and run-down condition, many of these heaths weren’t an attractive proposition to local farmers. To secure the grazing work, scrub and overgrown heath was cut and 22km of boundary fencing and four cattle grids were installed between 1999 and 2006.

 

As the livestock has regained the condition of these rough areas, the land has become more productive. This work has helped to convince local farmers to turn out their own cattle. By 2008 some 650ha of heathland was receiving positive grazing management. Most importantly there had been a five-fold increase in the intensity of non-National Trust cattle grazing on the heathlands.

 

Beef is best?

The National Trust commons of Morfa and Trelerw are part of the vast St David’s Special Area of Conservation (SAC), a European designation that reflects the international importance of the peninsula’s cliffland wildlife. The SAC contains some of the best examples of western Britain’s beautiful coastal heaths and maritime grasslands. Home to unusual plants that include Hairy greenweed, Genista pilosa and Chamomile Chamaemelum nobile, the cliffland also supports a high density of nesting chough and peregrine falcon.

 

The National Trust deployed half a dozen Welsh Mountain ponies to graze a 6ha section of Morfa common in the 1990s. However, although initial signs were promising, ponies have not proved equal to the task. Cattle at this time provide a more effective grazing service than ponies. Stands of bracken, bramble and gorse present little obstruction to 450kg Welsh Black steers, and the sward is left a little ‘shaggier’. There is a clear opportunity here to increase the supply of cattle into the Cig Tir Comin–Pembrokeshire Heathland Beef scheme. In doing so, we could find a more effective way, financially and ecologically, of grazing Morfa and Trelerw commons.

 

At the heart of the matter there is also the thorny issue of sustainability. My back-of-a-beer-mat calculation of the carbon costs of heathland management suggests that our pony grazing operation, reliant on plentiful diesel for the stockman’s Land Rover, can be more of an environmental crime than an occasional day spent toiling with heavy plant machinery to manage the vegetation instead. Not a particularly fair comparison – the habitat results for the two options contrast starkly with each other, and much of the coastal terrain is inaccessible to machinery – but the tables are turned when cattle and the production of food are brought into the equation. The trick is to reinstate an economic value to farming on the heaths, finding an additional return for society for all that conservation work. Our inland wet heaths, with their mosaics of marshy grassland in particular, are suited to cattle in summer.

 

Beef from the heath

Agrisgôp is an innovative scheme with the aim of helping farmers to develop their own businesses and runs as part of the Welsh Assembly Government Farming Connect programme. The producer group for Cig Tir Comin–Pembrokeshire Heathland Beef  represents a broad range of interests and livestock systems, from a smallholder to a Waitrose producer. The National Trust, with its small herd of Welsh Black cattle, is a member.

 

The standards checklist is simple: cattle must graze a recognised heathland site, improving its condition for nature; the beef must achieve a specific grade and be hung and dry-aged for a minimum of two weeks; and businesses must meet National Trust environmental standards. An important principle is that the cattle receive a natural diet throughout their life, even when taken from the heathlands to be finished on surrounding pasture.

 

The St David's store of CK's Supermarkets emerged as a potential outlet for the trial. CK's Supermarkets is the largest independent food retailer in south-west Wales, with 22 stores in the area. With the expert work of our Agrisgôp facilitator and a receptive in-store butcher, the trial received the support of the company’s Managing Director.

 

Ready for take-off

The Cig Tir Comin–Pembrokeshire Heathland Beef deal was for the whole carcass to be sold to CK’s. Their butcher would then prepare and pack the beef, labelling it with a supplied sticker, and then sell the product according to his requirements. The final requirement was for an intermediary contractor to fill the gap in the supply chain, between the abattoir and the store. A perfect match was made with Capestone Organics, an award winning poultry supplier near Haverfordwest. This enterprise had cold storage facilities available in summer and could de-bone the carcasses and deliver them to St David's.

 

As the launch neared, the work became fast and exhilarating. The trial started in mid September and was launched at the Really Wild Food and Countryside Festival in St David's, with cooked samples being offered from a stand. By sublime fortune, BBC1 Countryfile were filming a programme around St David's just before the start of the trial, and with some quick work to take a sample from the maturing beef and package it for the cameras, the brand enjoyed a five minute moment of prime-time exposure.

 

The results were hugely encouraging. Not only was the concept a hit, but the taste and quality received an enthusiastic welcome from consumers. The natural grass-based diet and dry-aging of the carcass produces beef that has a superior full flavour and is very tender. The economics look good as well – slaughtering and processing contributed an estimated £33,000 to the local economy, and the producers averaged a 10% premium over the conventional market price.

 

The plan for 2011 is to return with a steady stream of cattle entering the scheme from May to September. See www.pembrokeshireheathlandbeef.co.uk for news.

 

Andrew Tuddenham is the National Trust’s Head Ranger for North & Mid Pembrokeshire.

 

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