Herbert Nickel Profile picture
Apr 14, 2022 21 tweets 7 min read Read on X
Here is the long-announced thread about grazing with cattle & sheep in conservation management. I would very much like to read opinions & experiences from Dutch, British & Danish colleagues and from elsewhere in order to broaden the basis of evidence. I take a deep breath now:
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CATTLE is a native species all over Western Europe. Therefore plants and also animals here had a very long time to co-adapt in many ways, let it be grazing resistance and seed properties for zoochoric transport. Functionally at least hardy breeds are equal to wild auerochs.
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Since Neolithic man has become hugely dependent on cattle notably as milk, meat, leather & tallow source, but most importantly for draught. The rise of modern economies including the conquest of the New World would not have been possible without cattle drawing plough, burden &
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millstone. During most time of last 8.000 years cattle was a dominating shaping power in our landscapes, i.e. on the open pasture, but also in woodland and on fallow fields. Therefore most processes and functions in the landscape were principally still natural or near-natural.
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The Anthropocene brought a dramatic change. Common pastures were separated, most cattle were taken into the stable. Machines took their mechanical role, mineral fertilisers totally turned the shortness of nitrogen and phosphorous into excess.
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All interactions of plants and animals with this keystone species are disabled now. Wherever there are cattle left outside their stocking density is detrimentally high, their pasture is mown afterwards thus flattening all newly created heterogeneity and a high proportion of
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animals is treated against parasites poisoning the dung as an important food basis for insects and fungi thus eradicating a whole food chain many birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals depend on.
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On contrast SHEEP is a native of Western Asian mountains but not European lowlands. Although it can exert many positive ecological powers adaptations of native plants & animals are likely to leave some deficits, which can eventually lead to local extinctions of certain species 8/ Modern sheep grazing on Aug...
Like cattle domesticated sheep has been present in Europe since the Neolithic, its main economic role being somewhat different with focus more on wool, leather and meat. Unlike cattle it was not indispensable because its unique feature wool could be transported and traded.
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Still it probably occurred in most settlements. But its role as a landscape factor was less important. The Anthropocene turn left more sheep in the open, though at large the shepherd economy was driven to the margin. However, most of these marginal areas are highly valuable 10/
for our biodiversity. Despite subsidies modern shepherds notoriously earn too little money, so they are forced to increase their herds, use less hardy breeds, treat them medically and keeping them more in paddocks. Returning wolf imposes a serious problem since sheep cannot 11/
defend themselves & multiple kills are frequent, whereas cattle is mainly threatened as calf which however can principally be defended by the herd at least in hardy breeds. Modern sheep keeping is very efficient in preventing succession, enriching the landscape, transporting 12/ Image
plant seeds & keeping a traditional rural life. However, it is often no more capable of sustainably promoting rare species. Which is exactly the reason why they have become rare.
What happens on a modern sheep pasture? 13/ Image
The herd is 5 times larger than 100 years ago, often having 300 to 500 heads. They come for a few days until everything is down & then go somewhere else. I would call this shock grazing. Unfortunately most of the time they don’t eat what they should eat most urgently: tall
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& competitively superior grasses like Bromus erectus (upright brome) and Calamagrostis (wood small-reed). They are just trampled down but recover afterwards, benefitting from the dung pulse and suppress other plants through tall growth and dense roots. Instead sheep pick out
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anything else, especially all kinds of blooming forbs thus creating a homogenous lawn without any flowers. There are 3 ways to overcome this. (1) Taking the herd out in early spring to eat early and vulnerable meristem tissue. But you don’t have enough animals for doing this
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everywhere at the same time. (2) Fenced permanent pasture, (3) More cattle in sensitive nature reserve, but sheep grazing more outside reserves.
Some examples: The last German population of Micantulina micantula, a rare leafhopper feeding monophagously on Thalictrum minus,
17/ Micantulina micantula, a ra...
was eradicated by large herds of sheep in the Altmühl valley in the late 1990s. I have evidence for c. 20 more species e g Doratura horvathi, Xanthodelphax flaveola, Tettigometra spp., Megadelphax haglundi, all heading towards extinction in seemingly well managed reserves.
18/ Megadelphax haglundi, 5 kno...
I am frequently seeing downgrazed chalk grassland where even the most widespread leafhoppers are restricted to small patches under thorny scrub. I am also seeing many sites barely with any flowers.
Colias myrmidone, Danube clouded yellow (Regensburger Gelbling) is a rare
18/ Danube Clouded Yellow proba...
#butterfly feeding on several species of low-growing broom which are gradually disappearing from our calcareous grassland. In Germany it is extinct & there is evidence that modern sheep grazing is the cause. In Transsylvania it is still fairly widespread on cattle pastures 19/ Common pasture in Transsylv...
which are very rich in Cytisus and Chamaecytisus.
Birds such as buntings, shrikes, larks, whinchat all suffer on paddocked pastures (papers by colleagues in works).
The worst thing is: nobody wants to talk about this freely.
This thread focusses on the situation in Germany.
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More from @HerbertNickel

Sep 24
Ich kann das hier nicht stehen lassen und muss mal ein paar Punkte zum Insektensterben klarstellen, für die mir von verschiedenen Seiten doch eine gewisse Kompetenz zugesprochen wird. Das Fehlen von Beweisen ist kein Beweis für das Fehlen. Insektenschwund ist extrem schwer
1/ 🧵
auf wissenschaftlichem Niveau nachweisbar. Allein das räumliche und zeitliche Skalenproblem und die Frage der Reproduzierbarkeit sind kaum sinnvoll zu bewältigen. Verschiedene Arten, Artengruppen, Biotope, Regionen, Erfassungsmethoden, Mangel zuverlässiger alter Daten, Fehlen
2/
einer Referenzlinie, Witterungsschwankungen, wärmere Sommer, die das "andere" überlagern, und und und. Man kann sich all diese Probleme und Unsicherheiten aus den Studien zusammensuchen, sie wie @BauerWilli_org auf einen Haufen werfen und dann sagen, es gäbe keinen belegbaren
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Read 13 tweets
Aug 11
Der GAU für unsere Natur begann mit der Wende des 18./19 Jh. Man erkannte, dass das Milchrind besser im Stall "funktionierte". Die einst endlosen Weiden, die es heute noch in Siebenbürgen gibt, wurden privatisiert & gemäht oder anderweitig melioriert, mit gravierenden Folgen:
1/ Image
1. Kein Dung mehr draußen, Verlust einer gesamten Nahrungspyramide
2. Homogenisierende Mahd mit hoher Sterblichkeit für alle Grünlandtiere statt heterogenisierende Weide
3. Schaf als einziges Weidetier, das mit goldenem Huf keine Keimstellen schafft & selektiv Blüten abfrisst
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4. Bald Mechanisierung und Stickstoffdüngung
5. Verschwindende Ökotone (=Säume) wegen scharfer Grundstücksgrenzen
6. Verbot der Waldweide mit immer dunkler werdenden Forsten (ebenfalls ohne Dung)
7. Keine Samenvertragungen mehr auf den einstigen zaunlosen Weiden
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Read 5 tweets
Jul 31
Party im Alperstedter Ried bei Erfurt. Preisverleihung Weidelandschaft des Jahres. Kompliment und Gratulation an alle Akteure dieses bundesweit einmaligen Projektes, das Landwirtschaft und Naturschutz zusammenbringt. Auch der Staatssekretär würdigt dies.
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Hier war vor 9 Jahren ein Rapsfeld. Jetzt blüht es mit der extensiven Weide wie Tier. Sogar 2 Kraniche standen in einer Senke. Ich erwarte, dass die in ein paar Jahren hier brüten.
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Auf der Wilden Weide Alperstedter Ried ist nach 9 Jahren Beweidung eine der seltensten Pflanzen Deutschlands wieder aufgetaucht: die Gersten-Segge, Carex hordeistichos. Sie braucht verdichtete, leicht salzige und vom Vieh betretene Standorte.
3/
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Read 4 tweets
Jun 11, 2022
🧵Kleiner Grundkurs über die enorme Bedeutung der Basislinien im Naturschutz, die maßgeblich unsere Leitbilder prägen, und das Mengenverhältnis von Rind & Schaf in der mitteleuropäischen Landschaft.
Ich sehe immer wieder, dass die Basislinien für den Naturschutz in die Zeit
1/
der eigenen Kindheit gelegt werden. Da gab es Schwalben auf dem Hof & Kiebitze auf dem Acker (aber nicht mehr auf der Weide). Und Opa ist noch mit den Kühen aufs Feld. Aber auch, wenn uns damals die Natur noch als heile erschien, waren sehr viele Arten längst weg.
Tatsächlich
2/
gibt es zwei wichtige Basislinien: die Aussterbewelle der Megafauna im ausgehenden Pleistozän, das ich hier der Einfachheit halber mit dem Beginn des Neolithikums zusammenfallen lasse. Will sagen: Mammuts, Nashörner & Bisone, die wenig zimperlich mit

3/
Read 31 tweets
May 24, 2022
Destruktive Schockbeweidung mit Schafen im Juli, also zur besten Bienen- und Blütenzeit in einem hochwertigen Thüringer Naturschutzgebiet, teils mit Kopplung, teils aber auch nur mit "normalem“ Umtrieb.
Kurzer 🧵über ein Problem im deutschen Naturschutzmanagement.
1/
Null Blüten, null Insekten, auch nicht am Dung, der vermutlich voller Antiparasitenmittel ist. D.h., die Tiere koten Pestizide mitten ins NSG. Sie fressen selektiv die Blütenpflanzen (selbst Rosen) und lassen das Gras stehen und trampeln es nur nieder. Ich sehe das leider
2/
immer öfter. Das ist keine Landschaftspflege und schon gar nicht Naturschutz, sondern Biozid. Mit der SchaZie-Prämie werden jetzt die Herden bei gleichbleibender Weidefläche noch größer und machen noch schlimmeren Kahlfraß. Auf derartigen Flächen gelangt nach wenigen Jahren
3/
Read 6 tweets
Feb 17, 2022
Basic stuff in basic ecology with a strong implication for conservation:
Excluding grazers and mowing a grassland suspends one of the most fundamental processes in terrestrial nature: immobile plants being surrounded by mobile hungry animals. Plants must either "persuade" 1/ ImageImage
animals to avoid them and eat other plants or become grazer-tolerant through powerful meristems. Otherwise they will inevitably go extinct. This selection shaped all terrestrial life on earth through 100s of million years.

Only a few centuries ago man disabled that process 2/
with scythe and mowing bar after eradicating wild animals and putting domesticated animals indoor. The selecting process among plants was turned upside-down and now favours fast-growing instead of grazer-tolerant species. But most insects have adapted to the latter plants for 3/
Read 4 tweets

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