Selecting an appropriate cattle breed to work with to re-imagine and re-invent the Shieling System.
Transhumance cheesemaking operation in the Auvergne in France
(This is a first draft of a "permaculture design" I've begun. Eventually I might well get round to completing a written up portfolio for a UK diploma.)
The Goal - REVIVING THE SHIELING SYSTEM AS A VIABLE FOODWAY AND LANDSCAPE USE FOR TODAY
The Shieling system was a pre-clearance land use system found in the Scottish Highlands and other mountainous landscapes and cultures around the world, where the livestock are herded into the upland hills during the summer in a system of transhumance. Despite similar practices being maintained in other geographies, this system no longer exists in the Gaidhealtachd having finally been stopped in the 1960’s.
Between May and October, the livestock of each township were moved to its associated shieling in the hills where the animals would be herded and milked, subsisting off the upland pastures. This would free up the more fertile and low-lying glens, where the townships were, for cereal production. By doing so the animals were kept off the arable land or “run rigs” throughout the growing season, and by the time they returned from the hills, the crops would be safely harvested. This elegant foodway was one of the first victims of the Highland Clearances and its disappearance has played a large part in the erosion of the people of these parts ability to subsist fully off this landscape, the erosion of the ecology of the upland and the erosion of the culture of the Gaels. The loss of the practice of Shieling culture has led to a clear example of spirals of erosion.
My goal is to revive this system in an appropriate way for today’s needs and in doing so;
Play a role in restoring the ecology, habitats and biodiversity of the uplands (Earthcare)
Create opportunities for new entrant farmer/ neo-pastoralists (people care)
Revive a foodway which was once central to maintaining the culture and human ecology of the Gaidhealtachd (Fairshare)
A more expansive explanation of the proposed goals can be found in my supplementary essay “Ancient futures for the Highland hills.”
Images of old shielings and shieling practices (from The Shieling Project’s website)
Observation –
According the Hutton institute’s “Land Capabilities for agriculture” framework, 51% of Scotland’s landmass is only capable of rough grazing. The vast majority of this land is above the Highland fault line and in the Highlands and Islands (H&I). This is contrasted with the only 28% of Scottish land capable of arable or mixed farming. In the H&I this is a much, much smaller % confined almost exclusively to pockets in the east coast.
This 51% of rough grazing ground is mostly held in large estates, which have, since the clearances, historically been used for sheep runs, deer forests and conifer plantations. The economics of this is starting to change and there is a big push for things such as, so called, “rewilding,” afforestation, peatland restoration and other “ecosystem services.”
Cattle and other livestock are typically confined to the more fertile lowland parts of the landscape, close to where permanent human settlements are, aka they use the “in-bye” all year. This would normally equate to zones 3 and 4 in permaculture zoning terms.
This typically would have been land which would have been referred to as in-bye in a pre-clearance landscape. Despite the above map, the historical evidence from old statistical accounts and historic descriptions such as those Martin Martin’s “A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland” (1703), The Rev. Dr. John Walker’s “Report on the Hebrides” (1764 and 1771) and James MacDonald’s “General view of the Agriculture of the Hebrides or Western Isles of Scotland” (1811), show plainly that at the time of their writing, comparatively huge volumes of cereal (mainly bere barley, grey oats and Hebridean rye) were being grown in these more marginal parts, which made up the staple foods which large populations were able to subsist on.
This was only possible because the whole landscape was utilised at different points throughout the year in different ways and the livestock, which provided the other primary component of the land based diet in the form of dairy, were all herded into zone 5, the “out-bye” for roughly half the year, or the entire growth season.
Once the crops were safely in, the livestock would be brought down again and be wintered in the in-bye, where they would provide, both a winter heat source (they historically shared a building with the Gaels through the winter) and the manure which would help to fertilize the next years crops.
This pattern of transhumance was not only critical to the functioning of a robust foodway for the native Gaels which made full use of their agricultural landscape, but it was also a critical feature of the indigenous lifeway of the people here. When it was removed, the foodways and lifeways, which supported their whole culture and the Gaelic language started to fall apart.
Garvary or Gairbhairidh translates as “rough shieling”. A sight within walking distance of our farm which formerly would have been a shieling site. Typical of how these landscapes appear today: degraded landscape with little biodiversity. Bothy now on former shieling site.
At the moment there is a significant call for so called “rewilding” of these zone 5 landscapes which are often referred to as wilderness. Whilst the meaning of rewilding is open to interpretation and has many ambiguous in its meaning, many ecologists and oft cited examples of rewilding such as Knepp estate, have been very heavily influenced by the theories of Frans Vera, which is an accepted ecological theory today. This is a vision where the landscape does not naturally climax at a closed canopy woodland, but rather a mosaic of habitat always pulsing and in flux, created and maintained, in part, by the grazing and behaviour of large herbivores and mammals.
Many ecological reports from this region have cited that, at the correct stocking density, native cattle can not only be beneficial to woodlands in the Highlands but they are in fact essential to woodland ecologies here. Extensive descriptions of the many benefits of traditional cattle for woodland biodiversity and upland ecology can be found in papers such as “The importance of traditional cattle for woodland biodiversity in the Scottish Highlands” by Roy Dennis (1998) and “Scottish upland forests: History lessons for the future” by Kate Holl and Mike Smith (2007)
According to Dennis (1998);
“… a stocking rate of one cow per 20 hectres is the optimum for enhancing the nature conservation interests. Fewer than this appears to have little effect while higher numbers could cause overuse in key areas. Natural herd size would appear to have been in the range of 10-30 animals and there will be a need to try to aim at herd sizes in this range. Herds larger than this tend to damage the ground.”
Using this metric and applying this to a roughly defined portion of my local bioregion’s upland, the selected area consisting of 49,258 ha would be able to support roughly 2,462 cattle where there are currently almost none.
These could then be split into 82 herds of 30 cows, as per Dennis’ recommendations, which is not an atypical size herd for many of the transhumant dairy herds used to make cheese in the uplands of Europe.
The implication being, that this selected area may be able to support 82 cheesemaking operations in conjunction with restoring biodiversity through afforestation and “rewilding”.
Traditional cattle in woodland at Lynbreck Croft in the Cairngorms
Boundaries/ Barriers
Lack of appropriate livestock, which can thrive in these situations and availability and access to those which could work well
Access to land
Remembering and mindsets. This is a practice which fell out of being a couple hundred years ago, so getting people to believe it is possible and a realistic idea today will be a challenge.
Workforce. Who will actually go up into the hills as herders?
Legislation around milking and cheesemaking. Very strict hygiene laws with dairy in Scotland
Housing, shelter and facilities up on the hills
Other competing land uses and agendas
Midges….
COVID restrictions in terms of visiting possible cow herds elsewhere
Resources
Our family farm. A 275 acre semi-upland livestock farm set up for cattle and sheep farming
An existing herd of good commercial cattle + sheep
Good price for cattle at this time
My father is interested in changing tack with the cattle at the moment
A large barn which is currently used for 5 months of the year to winter cattle in
A position as an “insider” within the Easter Ross farming community
A link with the Shieling Project (I’m a director)
Friendly with the neighbouring landowners
My wife is a manager within Forestry and land Scotland, so I know the contacts
Connections within the arts world, so could pitch a pilot shieling project as an art project
A friend who is able to deliver prefabbed bothies into extremely remote locations, which could be kitted out to be fit for this purpose. (See below)
A modern, prefabricated fishing lodge delivered to the depths of a large Highland estate far from any road
Objective – Need to find or develop an appropriate breed of cattle to function well within this new/ old agricultural system
Whilst there are many barriers to reimagining, reviving and reinventing the Shieling system for today, perhaps the most fundamental one is to have livestock and in particular cattle, which have the appropriate traits and abilities in order to thrive in these habitats and systems.
Whilst commercial beef cattle are very well suited to gaining weight quickly in very good conditions, and while commercial dairy cows are capable of producing phenomenal volumes of milk in intense systems with heavy inputs, these breeds are not suitable to thrive in the tough conditions of the uplands of the Highlands and Islands.
Our current cattle are unable to outwinter so take up our barn for 5 months of the year making it essentially unusable for any other full time use.
So, the first step needed to enable a pilot project, is for our farm to switch breeds of cattle from large, continental European- commercial beef cows to smaller, hardier native dual-purpose breeds. Would need a breed that are able to outwinter, rather than need to be kept in the barn.
Our cattle overwintering in the farm’s barn
Cattle in late Autumn, prior to being moved inside for winter, heavily poaching the ground
Evaluation
An analysis of some of the different options for breeds.
NOTES
None of the animals on this longlist, with the exception of Whitebred Shorthorn will sell well at the mart, so this transition to a new breed will also necessitate creating a new market for the products of these animals, whether as meat, dairy or specialist livestock sales. Up until this point selling to the mart has been the only means of selling.
In order to switch to this, we will, initially at least, need to establish a new market for the meat from these animals. This will require a certain amount of USP’s and a focus on quality over purely quantity.
A neighbour of ours has established a successful and popular farm gate shop which he sells his Shetland beef from to a very loyal and enthusiastic customer base. This demonstrates that there is an appetite for this kind of product without a big marketing strategy or campaign.
Design
From the analysis it is obvious that in order to switch to a system like this, we need to change our cattle breed/s.
No individual breed comes out as a clear front runner, and because the uplands have not been used for this purpose in a commercial manner before a certain amount of selecting and breeding to create a fold which is fit for this specific purpose will be required.
The breeds that emerge as most promising to start with are:
Highland
Shetland
Kerry
Welsh Black
White Park
All of these are subject to the conditions and the attributes of the individual cows and folds where they come from, rather than simply being the certain breeds.
In order to breed a fit-for-purpose fold of cows, we will not attempt to stick to one specific pedigree breed, which tend to all have fairly small gene pools. Whichever breeds we start with, rather than attempting to stick to a pedigree herd, we will try to bring in genetic diversity and hybrid vigour by crossing with different breeds selected for the desired characteristics for our specific purpose (hardiness, thriftiness, milkiness, ease of calving, etc).
We will follow the stock breeding principles outlined in the classic Victorian book “Stephens’ book of the farm.”
In working towards a fold with our desired characteristics we will also adopt the rather tough motto of champion Highland Cattle breeders Ardbhan Fold, of “choosing the butcher’s block over the foot trims.” This means will we need to cull relatively hard once we start to build up a decent size herd, in order to select for and then maintain the desired qualities.
Implementation
Having identified a list of potential breeds of cow to begin with, the first step was to sell the existing herd.
Whilst Dad was ready to do this and believed it the correct thing to do, it was an emotional day and these have been the cows Dad’s been breeding since he took over the farm in 1988.
Whilst we had identified good breeds and a general approach within the design, the critical thing was finding the right animals within the breeds.
This was very apparent on our initial visit to a potential herd: a fold of pedigree Kerry cows, which were one of the very few existing herds of Kerry’s within mainland Britain. Whilst on paper Kerry’s may be an ideal breed for our purposes, this fold was in very poor condition, and obviously had been badly kept and badly bred for a number of generations, making them unfit for purpose.
We identified a fold of Highland cattle, in North Uist who by reputation would also be perfect, but due to COVID travel restrictions and then a lack of available heifers, this was not an option the year we needed.
Serendipity happened when a neighbour with a beautiful herd of Shetlands decided that he needed to sell his entire herd for health reasons. Whilst tragic for him, given the circumstances this worked out perfectly for both parties as we were able to buy the entire herd from him and he is able to still come up and see them when he wants to.
The new herd of Shetland cows
Maintenance (ongoing but early days)
(re)evaluation (too early)
Tweaking (too early)
Principles and tools used
Energy Flows and Energy Use
Inputs drastically lessen
Have the potential to have a system where nutrients are cycled in the hills through growth season
Crops are grown in Lowlands, then fertilised in winter months
Much more holistic use of our agricultural landscape which was historically how the people here had always survived and had used it.
This challenges the manufactured Victorian stereotypes, which have become accepted truths and re-tells them from a genuinely historical and cultural authentic and indigenous perspective. The hills open up with possibilities.
Obtain a Yield + spirals of abundance + stacking
Need to have dual purpose yields in mind from a food output point of view – cheese and meat
Cultural resurgence and regeneration through attempting to bring the Shielings back into being once more in a new context and fit for the purposes of today
Ecological recovery and regeneration of the hills
Potential new ethical and sustainable livelihoods and opportunities by opening these up.
A new/ old story about the hills, who they are for and how they might be used.
By getting cows that are able to outwinter, rather than having to be kept in the barn for 5 months of the year, the barn can be freed up for different uses. My wife and I used in as a venue for our wedding and it gave us an idea of how it could look, if repurposed for different uses (see below)
Diversity
Cattle breeds and in particular dairy breeds have gone down a genetic bottleneck over the past half century.
There are very few genetic lines of dairy cattle and they are so productive and specialised that they produce huge volumes of their desired product, but only under certain conditions. The goal here would be to breed a domesticated and productive type of cow which massively broadens rather than narrows the genetic range. This is explicitly attempted by rejecting keeping the herds as pedigree herds and by embracing the diversity of other suitable suitable breeds through cross breeding.
The practice that the cattle would be developed for would be to work within a system which would aim to bring diversity back into these “depleted landscapes”.
The cattle are the primary tools and co-workers to allow for this to happen again.
Zoning
I find thinking about zoning fascinating when thinking about the shieling system. In that Zone 0 is being brought into Zone 5 and that within it and a practice of herding Zone 5 is given the same attention that traditionally would be given to say Zone 2. This challenges the idea of wilderness and is more in keeping with the idea that these Zone 5 landscapes had evolved alongside people through indigenous practices of tending the wild, variations of which can be seen across the globe. (THIS MAY BE EXPANDED ON FOR ANOTHER DESIGN)
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