Turlough grazing

Marjolein Visser , Rory Keane¹, James Moran^1,2, Eugenie Regan^1,2, Aine O'Connor³, Mike Gormally¹ and Micheline Sheehy Skeffington²

1. Applied Ecology Unit, Centre for Environmental Science, National University of Ireland, Galway

2. Department of Botany, National University of Ireland, Galway

3. National Parks and Wildlife Services, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, 7 Ely Place, Dublin 2

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Turloughs are summer-grazed winter-flooded depressions in karstified limestone and virtually unique to Ireland. They provide a case study for a long-standing conflict between conservation and production objectives on marginal grazing land. Very little is known about turlough grazing. We report results of a study of cattle grazing on Skealoghan turlough (South Mayo, Ireland) in relation to farming systems and farmers' perceptions of turlough grazing. We worked with five different farmers who own adjacent strips of land that run across the turlough basin. Stocking rates, animal movements and vegetation characteristics were compared during the summer of 2003. Stocking rates varied greatly as did the farmers' perceptions of turlough grazing and the attractiveness of different plant communities to grazing livestock. However, current conservation management does not take this variation into account. Furthermore, weak links between cattle grazing preferences and these plant communities suggest that the variation in turlough vegetation needs to be reassessed in terms of its worth for grazing purposes.

This work has been presented at the 5th International Symposium on Fauna and Flora of Atlantic Islands ('Atlantic Island Ecosystems Towards a Sustainable Future'), University College Dublin, Ireland (24-27 Aug.).