FEEDING FOR THE LANDSCAPE

Tending strategies for the conservation of the Heath go back to a cultivation method that has been in use for many centuries. By their browsing the Heidschnucken keep the heather young and vigorous for many years. 

In the Nature Reserve the sheep are taken back to their pens at night. The manure collected from the pens is spread on the VNP owned fields which are cultivated according to Bioland standards. That way the nutritive substances from the heath are transferred to the fields. This substance flow was the basic principle of heath farming during the 18th and 19th century and is now the basis of our concept of heath conservation. 

The ‘German Grey Heath’ descends from the wild mouflon originating from Corsica and Sardinia. Compared to other sheep the German Grey Heath is frugal and undemanding and thus perfect for life on the heath. The lambs are born black but in their second year they get the typical adult fleece tinged with grey and horns in both sexes. Sheep shearing takes place in June. The coarse wool is not only used for carpets but increasingly as an ecologically worthwhile insulating material and ecological long term fertilizer.