Hay up!

Ollie and Goldie, our conservation grazers at the nature reserve, are running short of grass so we have been giving them a small amount of hay to eat over the Christmas period. Here you see them suddenly aware that I am down in the chalk pit and that probably means a new batch of hay has been left by the gate. As this area has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, for the flowers and insects in particular, we are very restricted in relation to any supplementary feeding we give the grazing animals. The hay we use was harvested from another nature reserve nearby, so it should not contain any invasive weed species that might contaminate the delicate ecosystem we are trying to conserve.