Saturday 5th July - All 25 seen

At 09:20 this morning, the seven Sussex cattle were happily grazing on the long, lush grass in the pasture near ///task.fells.sapping. Youngster 230 was about 50 metres to the west, tucked into the bracken, relaxing and chewing his cud. With plenty of flies around, the bushes provided some welcome cover. He was very friendly and enjoyed a long, relaxing back rub. Cow 211 was her usual affectionate self, offering cuddles and licks in exchange for head and neck rubs. All eight were relaxed, content, and looking well.

At 10:00, steers 217 and 227 were resting under the trees to the east of the larger fishing lake near ///cheaply.ringers.quiet, peacefully chewing their cud. Both were relaxed and in good condition.

By 10:30, I found steer 35 grazing alone near ///examples.belt.suits. He was absolutely fine, came over to say hello, then crossed the path to stand under some nearby trees. As I left, he wandered off in the direction of youngsters 217 and 227.

At 10:50, steers 219 and 228 were lying down, relaxing in the bracken on the Caesar’s Camp side of the fence near ///highs.occur.forge, close to Bourley Road. Nearby, yearlings 270 and 271, along with steer 222 and cow 214, were completely hidden in the tall bracken. Youngster 222 came out for a greeting and some strokes. I ended up heading into the bracken to check on the others, who all came over one by one to say hello. All six were happy, relaxed, and in good health.

Nearby, on the Gelvert side, steers 21 and 33, along with cows 234 and 940, were lying comfortably in the thicket near ///lime.pelt.reclaim. They, too, were relaxed and looking well.

At 11:20, before moving on to find the final group, I stopped back with the six cattle on Caesar’s Camp. They were now all lying down together, with youngster 228 looking particularly comfortable.

The last four — steers 20, 30, 220, and cow 72 — were resting under the trees west of Horse Pond at 11:50. Despite being bothered by flies, they were relaxed and in good condition.

I’m unsure how the cattle are managing to graze beyond the Nofence boundary set for the Gelvert site. Additionally, the tracking coverage on Gelvert is poor across two different mobile networks — neither reliably reporting either my position nor the cattle’s, with significant delays in location updates. In the end, I gave up and followed my pre-collar walking routes.

Having the cattle split across two sites and able to move freely between them, poses a significant challenge, especially for us lookers covering these large areas on foot. Hopefully, the increased time demands this places on visits won’t become too difficult to manage.

The cows were all good today.