Grazing with Cattle, Sheep and Horses in Mols Bjerge

So- called half-cultural areas like meadows, heaths and pastures can today - as a part of nature conservation - be preserved by grazing with cattle, sheep and horses.

 



Cattle 
Cattle is ideal for nature conservation . They eat the grass and don't like the bitter tasting flowers like buttercups. Furthermore they do not graze by the cow dungs. In this way several plants will be allowed to flourish for the benefit of the propagation of flowers and insects.

In public areas a specially developed forest breed is used, which is a crossbreed between 2 Danish dairy breeds and 9 various beef breeds. They are though animals , adapted for grazing in nature land all year.

At the Mols laboratory small longhaired cattle of the Galloway race is used. They are imported from Scotland and have the same properties as the breeds mentioned above.




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A cute Galloway calf - just look at those eyelashes!

 
Sheep 
Sheep are especially good for nursing the archaeological sites, the slopes and other vulnerable places. Sheep are better than cattle to keep trees and bushes down, but their grazing results in a more flower-poor cover of plants. Icelandic sheep are used at the land of the Mols laboratory.




Horses.
Horses are used in a few places in Mols Bjerge for nature conservation. Horses are better than cattle and sheep to eat the wavy hair grass, which is the most common grass in the open fields. Unfortunately the horses are not well-suited where the public is allowed to go because of their curious and restless behaviour.   
  

 

a small part of Øvre Strandkær's buildings

Mols Laboratory is owned by Naturhistorisk Museum in Aarhus. It is used as a field lab by scientists and students from universities and colleges.

Øvre Strandkær is a property of Miljøministeriet (Ministry of Environment). Here is an exhibition and from here is managed the forest-district's cattle-herd , ab. 200 animals, which are used for nature conservation. at Mols and Helgenæs. They are peaceful animals, which thrive in the nature land all year.

photo: grethe bachmann. 
source: Aarhus Amtskommune Naturafdelingen. 

My Garden and Mols Bjerge in September .....

Louise Odier on  16 September

 My Garden:
Now it is September and summer has gone too, too fast, it was not one of the hot summers, neither one of the long summers. Maybe it will be better next year !

Red Admiral, 16 September

Coral Dawn , 16 September

Autumn is near, the garden already looks a little autum-like, although some lovely roses are blooming again. The daily temperature is still fine, today up tp 20 degrees, the butterflies are still whirling around. Temperature at night is 15-18 degrees Celsius in this week.

When the frost arrives I'll have to take care of some plants which cannot endure the cold. It's the first time for many years I've got a garden to take care of  - and I'll have to refresh everything.there'll be much to do!





Although my "new" garden is about 20 years old it needs really to look better! The people who lived here before were not interested in garden work. Through the last year I have really worked hard to make the garden look  pretty. I love the English gardens and I'm working in that direction. My garden will be  different from the gardens of my neighbours. It will look more wild - and romantic! 

Nasturtium along the edge of the rocks in the front garden. 16 September

 I love roses, and I've already got some , both bushes and climbing roses. Then here is honeysuckle rose and hop plant climbing up a dead tree, a new climbing hortensia on the house wall, (no flowers yet in that ), a, dark blue Clematis by the front door,  a Jasmine bush, an Aronia,  a Chaenomeles, (it is a Japan quince, but I could not find other names), two Buddleias, one in the front and one in the back garden( I want to attract butterflies, also with my purple echinacea etc) -  and there are rows of  lavenders and lots of spice herbs like thyme, mint, lemon myrtle, sage.





In October I want to plant a red hawthorn and a Japan cherry - and I'm writing a memo-list of perrenial herbs.

Well, I think  have been babbling a little too much about my garden. I hope you have been patient? 





Mols Bjerge

Cattle and a wild apple tree in Mols Bjerge

Cattle and a beautiful tree in Mols Bjerge

Mols Bjerge (Goldenrod in front)

Well, Saturday I was in the National Park Mols Bjerge. In here is also  a section called Strandkær with laboraotires and houses for scientists and students. (belongs to Århus University). It's a wonderful area to take a walk. There is also a lovely hilly path called the Italian Path. I love to look at the cattle which is grazing in the lovely scenery in the hills. When the hills in Mols Bjerge  were being cleared some years ago, the landscape architects saw to that trees and growth worth of preservation were kept in the hills. I love those beautiful trees and I think the result of the clearing is wonderful.
I did not see any Icelandic horses this time but the field areas are big, so they might have been grazing in a far away field. Although most of the summer flowers have gone there is still some beauty in the hills. The goldenrod (Solidago) spreads its golden shine all over some of the hills.

Goldenrod, Mols Bjerge

 The national park is not just nature area -  here are also farms and cornfields:The fields are mainly harvested now and other fields are ready for the winter seed.

cattle Mols Bjerge

text and photo September 2015: grethe bachmann

Month of May - Sweet and Mild

The month of May is sweet and mild with soft green hills and light green leaves,
sparkling yellow in the sunlight.

"Bright coinage by the generous sun
Down flung and scattered one by one..."

says a poem by Andrew Downing.¨¨

Horse and cattle are out in the fields again, enjoying the good weather I suppose. They almost alway join each other in a flock -  they are social  animals. I feel so sorry for a lonely horse in a field.

These horses are grazing in a beautiful place. I wonder if they do observe that?

Three photos from Nationalpark Mols Bjerge

Just take a look at this lovely thick wool of the Galloway cow.


The Galloway cattle is grazing the area of the Molslaboratoriet, owned by Naturhistorisk Museum in Aarhus and a part of the Nationalpark Mols Bjerge.

A sweet little Galloway calf. The Galloway cattle is very peaceful and calm, in fact reserved, they are not interested in us humans, no matter how much we want to "talk with them" - which might be a good thing! They are not curious, they keep away from us, which might prevent some bad experiences,  when we are walking in their fields.

So sweet. What fine eyelashes!

Den italienske sti (The Italian path). Each year I long for a walk along this path, it's a place with lots of plants and animal life, especially many butterflies in summer, but today is still too early. BUT it is a lovely spring day, and the sun is warming my old wintercold bones!

A brimstone in a dandelion

Have you walked beneath the blossoms in the spring?
In the spring
Beneath the apple blossoms in the spring
When the pink cascades are falling
And the silver brooklets brawling
And the cuckoo bird is calling
In the spring

from poem by William Wilsey Martin.

Walking along the Italian Path gives me the feeling that I want this moment to last.....

.....but we drive on and down to the beach  - and we pass one of the pretty buildings, belonging to the Mols Laboratory.

Down by the beach and the clouds and the blue, blue sea........

This cloud is either a duck or a dachshound being chased by a big fish!

A white wagtail playing by the beach...

Genista anglica ( Engelsk Visse) here growing by the coast of East Jutland, common in Mid- and West Jutland (in Denmark).

English names are petty whin, needle furze, needle whin. It is a shrubby flowering plant of the family Fabacea, which can be found growing in Cornwall, Wales and eastern Scotland.





























Goodbye to Mols Bjerge and The Italian Path and the Galloway calf for this time..............



photo Mols/Strandkær 10 May 2014: grethe bachmann 

Cameroon/Cameroun Sheep at Strandkær
Naturhistorisk Museum/ Mols-Laboratory
Mols, East Jutland

Sheep have been domesticated by humans for thousands of years and used for both wool and meat. They are generally found wherever human populations have settled and are usually kept in breeding groups called flocks which consist of a few males and many females. They can, however, survive in the wild on grassland and rocky mountainsides.

The Cameroon/Cameroun Sheep is a dwarf species of domesticated sheep found in hot countries, most notably (and originally) Cameroon, but also south-west and central AfricaThey are similar to early breeds of sheep. Since this breed of sheep comes from Africa, its wool is suitable for the hot temperatures in Africa. Their colours are red/brown with patches of black or white. They do not have woolly coats, as they are adapted to hot weather, but in winter it develops an additional layer of wool. However, this can be compared with the coat of an Arabian horse and doesn’t really provide protection from the long, cold European winters. Even native animals with a winter fleece that has adapted to prevailing temperatures don’t always survive cold winters. They must have a dry shelter with no drafts in winter. Cameroon sheep graze all day on grass and any other vegetation they can find.

Information about the Mols-Laboratory: Strandkær

Cameroon/Cameroun is a Republique in central and western Africa. The name derives from the Portuguese sailors who rached the coast in 1472. They noted an abundance of prawns and rayfish in the Wouri River and named it Rio dos Camarões, Portuguese for "River of Prawns". Cameroon is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups. The country is well known for its native styles of music and for its successful national football team. English and French are the official languages.

photo Strandkær 11.July 2009: grethe bachmann