Cattle have roamed Cambridge's city centre for hundreds of years. GPS is keeping the tradition going

Globe and Mail

2 days ago

The sight of cattle grazing in the parks and open spaces around Cambridge is as much a part of the scenery as the ancient colleges that make up the city's famous university. But the tradition that dates to medieval times nearly fell victim to budget cuts this year until officials found a 21st century solution – GPS-guided collars.
Farmers have had the right to herd their livestock onto public land in Cambridge for centuries, and each spring and summer around 100 cattle roam around the city's medieval commons, fens and greens – including Sheep's Green, where Charles Darwin collected insects. They go about their grazing alongside merchants, tourists and scholars strolling through the University of Cambridge, and they've become a city attraction.
But cattle also have a tendency to wander, and the Cambridge cows have been known to fall into the River Cam, which winds through city.
Every year around four of the animals end up in the water, either from slipping, running into each other or being spooked. There's little risk of them drowning since the Cam is shallow and cattle are surprisingly good swimmers. But once they tumble in they can't climb back up the muddy riverbank, so they stand and wait to be rescued. That can take hours and requires a specialized farmhand called a pinder, plus usually the fire department as well.
The city council spends £10,000 ($18,600) annually on a 24-hour pinder service to fish cattle out of the river. That's in addition to the £28,000 the council pays every year to maintain gates, grids and fences for grazing. The total outlay is far more than the £4,000 the city collects in annual grazing fees from farmers.
Last November, city council faced a financial crunch and needed to find £6-million in savings from its £71-million budget. As part of the cuts, councillors proposed dropping the 24-hour pinder service and leaving it to farmers to pick up the tab.
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The proposal caused an outcry from residents and farmers, and put the future of the grazing into doubt. Farmers argued that forcing them to pay for the service would make using the commons uneconomical and they'd have to pull their cattle.
The backlash led councillors to consider an alternative.
They decided to fit the cattle with solar-powered GPS collars that emit high-pitch sounds as the animals approach a virtual fence. If they persist, the collar sends a mild electric pulse to train them to turnaround. The virtual boundary can be adjusted with an app, which farmers can also use to track the whereabouts of their cattle.
The GPS system, developed by a Norwegian company called Nofence, has been rolled out on a trial basis. It costs a fraction of the on-call pinder.
'It works really well for what it's got to do,' said Mark Drew, who keeps 30 Hereford cattle on the commons and another 40 outside of town.
'We're tenant farmers. We don't own a lot of land ourselves, so we have to get grass wherever we can. It's nice to have a presence in Cambridge and it's not too expensive,' he said, adding that he pays the city around £50 a year per head. 'Our cattle tend to work quite well with the public as well because they are quite quiet.'
Mr. Drew said a major benefit of the GPS system is that city officials can easily adjust the virtual fence when needed. For example, they can change the enclosure to protect newly planted flowers and gardens. 'Once they've flowered then they turn the fence off and the cattle can then go over those areas.'
He's had far too many late-night experiences rescuing cattle from the water.
One from his herd got stuck in the river near Darwin College a couple of years ago and managed to climbed onto a small island. 'It couldn't get back to the common because there was a vertical bank. So we had to, with the help of the fire service, lift it back across the the water channel.'
It took most of the day to get the animal back on dry land, Mr. Drew said. 'If by using the collars we can avoid the cattle going near those watercourses in the first place, we can save all the hassle and aggravation of that.'
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Angelika von Heimendahl, a local veterinarian who keeps 10 of her 50 cattle on the commons, said it's not clear how many cattle the collars have saved from the river. 'We're not 100 per cent sure whether it's dogs chasing them, or whether it just happens. If it's dogs, then the collars are not going to help.'
But for now, she said, the collars have worked well and Cantabrigians and cattle continue to live side by side. Although it's people, she added, who give her greater concern.
'Cattle are still animals that need to chew their cuds and lie down and be able to relax. And I think people sometimes really push their luck how close they go, or try and touch them.'