Herd the News? Cow Appeal’s success
Friday 9th November
Our successful and popular Cow Appeal has now concluded. Thanks to a huge variety of ingenious fundraising events and generous donations we raised a total of £20,000 – enough to purchase our herd of 10 lovely Lincoln Red cows, with a few calves already here and (we hope) many others to join them in the future!
Our valiant Four Men and a Bull team raised £1559.25 and counting (donations are still coming in as the account remains open for 3 months after the event) towards the cost of a bull, which will be joining the cows shortly.
Our Cow Appeal
Over a year ago, we launched our Cow Appeal - asking our supporters to help raise funds to help us purchase our own herd of rare breed cattle, which we will use to graze and help preserve wildflower meadow habitats in Nottinghamshire, especially around the Trent Vale area.
So why do we want a herd of Lincoln Red cows?
The simple fact is that over the past 50 years we have lost 98% of the UK's wildflower meadows. This valuable habitat was originally a product of traditional livestock farming, where farmers would graze locally bred cattle on their land. Grazing cows prevent the growth of other plants and shrubs, so wildflowers then thrive - great news for the wonderful wildlife that relies on this habitat for their survival.
Over the years, this sort of farming has been on the decline. Beautiful wildflower meadows have been lost forever, replaced by more intensive forms of livestock farming. We believe the only way to guarantee a future for our wildflowers is to reinstate traditional livestock farming as it used to be done.
We are a partner in the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership - an ambitious living landscape project focusing on the area along the River Trent, from Newark to Gainsborough. Through our Cow Appeal, we wanted to champion traditional grazing techniques within the Trent Vale and across Nottinghamshire.
The £20,000 raised has meant we now have our own herd of Lincoln Red cattle - a traditional breed from the Trent Vale. Lincoln Reds were bred specifically to thrive on grassland habitat, with no need for fertilisers or other food sources. They are perfectly suited to this job - professional grazers who are a living part of our heritage !
We are working with local farmers, British Waterways, the Environment Agency and others to find areas of land which have not been grazed for many years, and will be using our conservation grazing experience to improve threatened grasslands. Our herd will also help us to demonstrate the landscape and biodiversity benefits of traditional livestock management, both to the farmers of today and to the public.
Cow Appeal facts...
5: the number of cows in our new herd paid for and named by individuals and businesses who donated £1500 each
695: the number of cow-shaped biscuits sold for the Appeal (thanks to Mary's Kitchen in Sneinton for their biscuit-baking support!).
4: the number of crazy members of Wildlife Trust staff who put themselves through the '4 Men & a Bull' endurance race, to raise money to buy us a bull. Click here to find out more and watch the videos!
1: the number of life-size plastic calves that we are now offering as a prize in our Grand Autumn Raffle! - click here to find out more
Thank you
We would like to say huge Thank You to EVERYONE who has helped to make our Cow Appeal such a great success.
Our next Appeal
Please click here to find our about our new Lost Woodland Appeal - raising funds to turn back the clock 1000 years, and restore 10 acres of Treswell’s lost ancient woodland.
