Earlier this cold day I saw cattle on a Craven gritstone hill, licking their calves.
Their grazing and composting are restoring microbial life into the soil.
That’s what I heard from Long Preston farmer James Newhouse, a participant in the Defra-funded Farming in Protected Landscapes (“FiPL”) programme.
I heard the very same message only yesterday about the importance of soil. In the glorious Howgills. Kate Roberts spoke at Orton Town Hall to a group of Cumbria Wildlife Trust volunteers. Bacteria, fungi, protozoa (vase shaped, bacteria-eating) and nematodes (worms) were the microbes that “extract, hold and deliver”.
She said she was in microbiology for carbon sequestration. Soil could pull in the “excess carbon”.
Grazing animals were an essential part of a fully functioning soil ecosystem, she said, when examining soil from a meadow. Which brings us back to Mr Newhouse’s pasture fed cattle, produced for high quality beef.
For residents in the National Park, look out for more on them and “FiPL” in the next edition of Dales.
