Researchers Track Cattle Grazing with GPS Technology In U.K. National Park

Cattle are being released into the remote College Valley inside the U.K.’s Northumberland National Park. Adam Waugh, a local farmer, is teaming up with agricultural researchers from Newcastle University to study his herd of native Luing cattle. The research is being funded by the Sir James Knott Trust, Cheviot Futures and College Valley Estate, and facilitated by Northumberland National Park Authority.

The cattle will be released onto the Cheviot site to find their own shelter, grass to graze and water sources. The team will be monitoring the cows with GPS tracking devices from a remote location. The devices give researchers an advantage of not requiring visual contact with the animals in order to observe them. This is especially advantageous during the night and bad weather.

“The results from this cattle tracking work will be linked to information on vegetation and wildlife distribution and abundance. This will help us gain a better understanding of how the cattle grazing influences the important habitats in the Cheviots and the wildlife they support. In future we hope to extent the work to tracking sheep as well as cattle,” said Mary Gough, Farming Advisor for Northumberland National Park Authority.  

Cheviot Futures Project Officer, Tracy Hall, added, “This innovative take on recording livestock movement and activity in the Cheviot HIlls will offer a valuable insight into the behavior of new livestock introduced to an upland environment. In particular, the way the cattle use the grazing area available to them, and how they behave in different weather conditions will provide information relevant to livestock producers seeking to make efforts to increase their resilience to the effects of climate change.”

“The GPS collars will provide us with precise locations of the cattle while they roam the area. This information will then give us a unique insight into how the cattle use the available area and how they affect the local biodiversity,” explained Dr. Richard Bevan from Newcastle University. 

Researchers Track Cattle Grazing with GPS Technology In U.K. National Park