You are cordially invited...

Dear volunteer
Here at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust we rely heavily on our volunteers to help us achieve our work. In the Northern Team, volunteers help us carry out surveys, keep an eye on our cattle and manage our reserves to name but a few of the valuable roles that you undertake.
To say thank you and give you a chance to meet other volunteers we would like to invite you to a hog roast and social evening at Newlyns Farm Shop on Wednesday October 15th from 6pm onwards through until 9pm. We need to keep track of numbers so if you would like to attend please respond by Monday 6th October.
The hog roast is provided but please bring a bottle. If you require a vegetarian alternative please let us know at the time of booking.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Please reply by emailing alexc@hwt.org.uk

Let Sleeping Cows Lie!

A few of you have noted that you have had difficulty in raising your cows when you have encountered them resting. It is certainly important to know that our cows have no limb injuries and can walk normally. At the same time, attempting to get a group of cows onto their feet can be dangerous, especially if you come between individuals in the herd. It can also be stressful to the cows.

So, I would suggest that if a group of cows are found lying down resting and they are all chewing the cud, bright-eyed, breathing normally, with no discharge from either end, they can safely be left and there is no need to try and get them to their feet.

In fact, if you do force a group of cows to their feet, they may even give false indications of injury as they may exhibit stiffness and pins-and-needles and appear lame. Within a few, minutes, just like us, they will have walked it off.

So when should you report a cow lying down? When should you try and get a cow to its feet? Well, the place and position a cow is lying in is important. A cow lying in a ditch, on its own, is a very different situation from one amongst a group simply having a rest in the shade. I would suggest that any cow lying on its own, some way off from the rest of its herd, is worth a closer look. In this situation, when approached a healthy cow will quickly stand and rejoin the herd. If it does not, do not ‘make’ it get to its feet; if it is injured, you are likely to stress it out, which may cause it to injure itself further.

Instead, any cow in this situation should be reported to us. We can then monitor it and, if necessary, inform the grazier. A cow which has not risen for a day or more obviously becomes more of a worry. However, cows are notoriously stubborn. I seem to remember a James Herriott story about a cow which had lain prone in its byre for two days. It was about to be shot with a suspected broken pelvis when it rose languidly to its feet, none the worse for wear!
So I hope that helps to clear things up about when to help and when to let sleeping cows lie!

Oliver

The art of lookering!

Hello All,

It’s been great to see how well you have all adopted the looker blogs; hopefully this will make it easier not only for you to communicate with us and each other, but for the graziers too, who can now get an immediate update on their animals.

With cows on three of our sites, and the prospect of cows returning to Caesar’s Camp in the not-too-distant future, I thought this might be an opportune time to reaffirm the things to look out for when lookering (although judging by your posts few of you need any reminding!).

If you have time, it is good practice (and quite rewarding) to watch your cows from a long way off for a minute of two, if possible before they are aware of you. This way you will get a good idea of how they behave naturally, when they are completely relaxed, and will get a good idea of the herd dynamics. Once you know how cows act when they are healthy, you will be able to pick up on any change in their behaviour much more quickly.

As soon as cows are aware of your presence (or even moreso, the presence of a dog) they begin to behave differently. This is true even of cows that are ‘used’ to people. They may bunch up, the cows may move to protect their calves, or their breath rate may increase.

Furthermore, cows as herd animals instinctively try to ‘hide’ signs of illness or injury from potential predators, including humans. It is sometimes easier to check for signs of injury or distress in a group that is relaxed, rather than one that is on edge and aware of your presence.

What should you look for? Breathing is an important indicator. Is it laboured, rasping, or is it very shallow and fast? Both can be danger signs. Problems often manifest themselves at each ‘end’ of a cow: its head and rear end. All cows drool, but excessive amounts of coloured drool may indicate a problem. Cloudy eyes, or any discharge from the eyes, will also be worth noting.

If a cow has an injury or illness, it will soon lose interest in cleaning itself. Therefore, a mucky rear-end can be a danger sign. At the same time, it is perfectly natural and normal for a cow to take a mud bath occasionally!

Conversely, persistent licking of the same spot could be a sign of a skin infection or ringworm, and again this should be brought to our attention.

Some signs of illness are subtle. Yet it can be very clear when a cow is unwell. I encountered a number of cows affected by lead poisoning at Caesar’s Camp. They were separate from the herd, listless, with their heads down, but not eating or foraging, and could be approached, even touched, without showing any interest at all in you. In short, here was every danger sign that the lookering course teaches us to look out for. Even had I not known about the lead poisoning, I would have known something was wrong.

To make sure you check every part of a cow, it may be helpful to adopt a pattern which you use every time, checking first the ears and head, then neck, then front feet, underbelly, back legs, rump and back, before repeating this on the other side.

Keep up the reports, and many thanks for your continued help!

Oliver

Grazing Project Fundraising at Waitrose

Hello everyone,

Waitrose are doing a nationwide scheme whereby shoppers can nominate local charities to receive donations and end of till collections. Shoppers are invited to 'vote' (with green discs) for the project they think Waitrose should then donate sums of money to, in accordance with the number of votes received. One of three charities in the Fleet store at present is the Hampshire and isle of Wight Wildlife Trust's Grazing Project. We are trying to get the same project in the Yateley store as well.

So we are asking all of you if you shop in Waitrose Fleet, or fancy shopping in there over the next few weeks, to vote for the grazing project so that we can all help to raise some money for the project which will then directly improve your local wildlife areas. It really is that simple.

Happy shopping everyone.

Elliott

Caesars Camp clean up on TV

For those of you who could not make the clean up on site a few weeks back it was a very good success. Television crews were present and the news piece that went out a week or so later can be seen on

http://www.itvlocal.com/meridian/news/?player=MER_News_15&void=231468

You can scan through the news piece upon where our article starts at 4.50 mins

Thanks again to everyone who turned up and for all of you showing your support, patience and understanding over these past few months.

Happy viewing

Welcome and Well Done

Well if you are managing to read this then my email instructions must have been pretty clear so welcome to the brand new Caesars Camp Lookers Blog and well done on getting here. We really hope that this proves a big success and will be one more way that we can help you all to get more out of your lookering.

If you ever have any urgent reports may I ask that you still contact the grazing project directly so that they can be rectified as soon as possible. As always technology is not to replace speaking to one another it is just to help us :)

Access to this blog is restricted to lookers only so please feel free to share personal contact details with one another.