Cattle are widely employed for conservation grazing to restore and maintain grassland that has deteriorated through poor husbandry, neglect or abandonment. In Târnava Mare Special Area of Conservation in the Saxon Villages region of southern Transylvania, which retains some of Europe's most extensive semi-natural lowland grassland, Anglo–Romanian NGO Fundaţia ADEPT has worked since 2004 to protect the ecological and cultural landscape. Farming families and communities are at the heart of a conservation strategy that combines economic development with the conservation of biodiversity outside conventional protected areas.
Agriculture in this region of rolling hills, oak–hornbeam forest, grassland and arable land relies largely on non-intensive mixed farming, facilitating survival of habitats and animal and plant species that have otherwise retreated or disappeared from much of Europe (Akeroyd, 2006, The Historic Countryside of the Saxon Villages of Southern Transylvania, Fundaţia ADEPT; Akeroyd & Page, 2011, Contribuţii Botanice, 46, 57–71). Only dairy farming is at all commercially developed. Sheep-milk cheese is mostly consumed locally; dairy companies collect cow milk for processing elsewhere. Cattle numbers have fallen as a result of low milk prices and competition from imports, replaced by large flocks of sheep that overgraze and erode pastures. Beef cattle may offer a more profitable option and a benign grazing regime.
Since March 2018 Fundaţia ADEPT has managed a 60-strong Aberdeen Angus beef herd in 240 ha of Angofa valley, 5 km south of the historic town of Sighișoara, to restore grassland degraded by 15 years of sheep grazing. The purchase of a farm, grant-aided by Fauna & Flora International's Halcyon Land & Sea Fund, supported by Arcadia, a fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, and FFI's wider supporter network, has enabled ADEPT to establish and demonstrate conservation-friendly management on a landscape scale and to generate income. Donations from individual UK supporters funded the purchase of the beef herd.
By mid June 2018 the herd had achieved good condition. Even some animals in poor condition in early 2018 were, a few months later, more or less indistinguishable from the others. No supplementary feed was given; the cattle fattened on a diet of native grasses and wildflowers, contradicting conventional modern farming theory. In spring 2019, when they calved a second time, 56 of 60 animals gave birth successfully and the herd is now healthy and established. Fundaţia ADEPT estimates that agri-environment payments and beef sales will yield a profit of EUR 65,000 per year in 2019 and 2020, which will be partly reinvested in the farm, to fund new machinery and conservation activities. It is important that this farm demonstrates the economic viability of conservation-based landscape-scale grassland management. It offers a realistic model, as in many villages farmers already have common grazing and privately-owned hay meadows.
Cattle graze less closely than sheep, trample and open up coarse vegetation, and require more hay meadows for winter feed. They leave clumps of longer grasses favourable to invertebrates, whereas sheep produce a more homogeneous low sward. Cattle provide better support for family farms, and herds can be managed by associations in which members share profits. Sheep flocks are usually owned by individuals rather than by communities, and often by outsiders who retain all profits. The Aberdeen Angus breed fulfils dual roles of beef production and conservation grazing. Hardy and easy to manage and calve, the breed thrives on a herbage-only diet and tolerates temperatures from –30 °C in winter to + 40 °C in summer. It has an assured value in Romania and attracts EU headage payments for selected pedigree cattle breeds.
Beef is not traditional in the Romanian diet, but rising living standards have made it a prestigious, more widely eaten food. Pasture-fed beef is rich in healthy omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and the cattle themselves provide wide environmental, social and economic benefits. Concerns about greenhouse gas emissions from beef production rarely distinguish between beef raised on permanent pasture and that relying on inputs linked to intensive arable farming, imported feed or rainforest clearance. The soil of permanent pastures, especially when extensively grazed by domestic or wild herbivores, can reduce net carbon (CO2, CH4) emissions by > 90% or even sequester more CO2 than emitted.
Since 2017 removal of sheep in Angofa valley, combined with cattle grazing, has allowed restitution of pastures and other habitats. Regular mowing for winter feed should restore hay meadows that, after 2 years, already show a significant increase in floristic diversity, notably of legumes and orchids.
