Duncan Reid (already a volunteer here) is the stockman and he'd already done a few days working with the Luing cows at Aikerness farm before going out on the hill. Duncan works for us under a labour services agreement between RSPB and the Orkney Business Ring. There are 6 cows out there so far, another 4 may go out after these have settled in, and Duncans job is to keep an eye on them and guide them away from sensitive areas, herd them to places we want them to graze and away from other neighbours animals. They have been great so far only giving Duncan the occaisional runaround - the first when the cows just would not leave the field. When they are not on the hill, the cows remain in an adjacent field with (green) grass and water. We know that the Birsay Moors is in need of some low impact management , but the main aim is to see if this kind of cowherding approach is workable in this 600ha section of Birsay Moors with a view to running upto 30 hefted cows sometime in the future, without the need for putting in new fences. This short timescale (30 hill days during August, September & October) will hopefully be enough to highlight any problems, limitations, benefits etc against stockman costs. To help with H&S and ecological assessments Duncan has a GPS tracker and one cow is fitted with a GPS collar - we'll know where Duncan is all the time, but the cow's data will be downloaded at the end of the 3 months.
Duncan is employed through the Orkney Business Ring’s labour service and the cattle are supplied by Brain and Fiona Ridland, Aikerness Farm in return for some grazing land.
Andy Knight, Reserves Manager