Grazing History

2003-4 Grazing History Report

The understanding of the history of grazing on North Loch Tayside forms a key part of out understanding of landscape use through time. Because of the quality of data available, the Ben Lawers area offers a good opportunity for looking at how Highland livestock farming changed over recent centuries. The history of Highland livestock farming has been dominated by how large-scale, commercial sheep farming spread into the region from the mid-late 18th century onwards. Not only are there still questions we need to ask about what the spread of commercial sheep farming involved, but also, there are still fundamental questions that need to be answered about the nature of stock farming prior to the spread of large-scale sheep farming.

Number of livestock per township

Because of their role in the calculation of rent levels, the Breadalbane estate regularly drew up lists of souming or stocking levels on its various townships. From these, we can derive a broad picture of stocking prior to the spread of large-scale sheep farming. Old ideas about such farming being based solely on cattle have to be abandoned. The 17th and 18th century data for the Ben Lawers area show the livestock of each township prior to the late 18th century to have been mixed in character, with sheep, goats, and horses as well as cattle being present. Whilst cattle were the dominant element when seen in terms of their soum weighting, sheep and goats were often more important in straight numerical terms.

Beyond this simple reconstruction of what each township possessed as regards stock, there are still many questions we need to answer. Some of the regulations by which stock were managed in each township are recorded for us in the Court Books of Toyer and Disher. Among other things, these set the calendar or routines of stock movement during the year, fixing the date by which stock had to be taken to the shielings and the date by which some were to be returned to tath the outfield folds and the date by which they were allowed onto the harvest stubble. Here and there in such records are clues about other aspects of livestock management. For instance, it is clear from late-16th century entries that farmers were burning heather to provide a fresh supply of young growth, with the estate responding by laying down controls over when such burning could take place. In fact, estates like the Breadalbane estate were responding to Acts of Parliament that had been on the statute books since 1400 AD.

One of the most intriguing questions that we still need to answer about stock management over the 16th-18th centuries is the provision, which communities made for winter fodder. Early reports for the region suggest that communities neglected winter fodder, with high winter rates due to inadequate feed being commonplace. In the case of the Ben Lawers, we can use mid-18th century surveys to establish the amount of low ground meadow present. On balance, less meadow was available on the north side than on the south side of the loch. Supplementing this sort of information is a remarkable survey for the early-18th century of the amount of cut hay present in each township, measured in terms of bolts. Armed with this sort of information, as well as stock numbers, we can begin to answer questions as to how well the average township in the Ben Lawers area attended to the needs of its stock as regards winter feed prior to the spread of turnips and sown grasses.

2003-4 Grazing History Report

The understanding of the history of grazing on North Loch Tayside forms a key part of out understanding of landscape use through time. Because of the quality of data available, the Ben Lawers area offers a good opportunity for looking at how Highland livestock farming changed over recent centuries. The history of Highland livestock farming has been dominated by how large-scale, commercial sheep farming spread into the region from the mid-late 18th century onwards. Not only are there still questions we need to ask about what the spread of commercial sheep farming involved, but also, there are still fundamental questions that need to be answered about the nature of stock farming prior to the spread of large-scale sheep farming.

Because of their role in the calculation of rent levels, the Breadalbane estate regularly drew up lists of souming or stocking levels on its various townships. From these, we can derive a broad picture of stocking prior to the spread of large-scale sheep farming. Old ideas about such farming being based solely on cattle have to be abandoned. The 17th and 18th century data for the Ben Lawers area show the livestock of each township prior to the late 18th century to have been mixed in character, with sheep, goats, and horses as well as cattle being present. Whilst cattle were the dominant element when seen in terms of their soum weighting, sheep and goats were often more important in straight numerical terms.

Beyond this simple reconstruction of what each township possessed as regards stock, there are still many questions we need to answer. Some of the regulations by which stock were managed in each township are recorded for us in the Court Books of Toyer and Disher. Among other things, these set the calendar or routines of stock movement during the year, fixing the date by which stock had to be taken to the shielings and the date by which some were to be returned to tath the outfield folds and the date by which they were allowed onto the harvest stubble. Here and there in such records are clues about other aspects of livestock management. For instance, it is clear from late-16th century entries that farmers were burning heather to provide a fresh supply of young growth, with the estate responding by laying down controls over when such burning could take place. In fact, estates like the Breadalbane estate were responding to Acts of Parliament that had been on the statute books since 1400 AD.

One of the most intriguing questions that we still need to answer about stock management over the 16th-18th centuries is the provision, which communities made for winter fodder. Early reports for the region suggest that communities neglected winter fodder, with high winter rates due to inadequate feed being commonplace. In the case of the Ben Lawers, we can use mid-18th century surveys to establish the amount of low ground meadow present. On balance, less meadow was available on the north side than on the south side of the loch. Supplementing this sort of information is a remarkable survey for the early-18th century of the amount of cut hay present in each township, measured in terms of bolts. Armed with this sort of information, as well as stock numbers, we can begin to answer questions as to how well the average township in the Ben Lawers area attended to the needs of its stock as regards winter feed prior to the spread of turnips and sown grasses.

2004-5 Grazing History Report

We know relatively little about Highland stock farming prior to the spread of specialised sheep farming across the region from the mid-18th century onwards. Work on grazing history has tried to address this problem. The 16th and 17th century rentals amongst the Breadalbane Muniments refer to a type of farm known as a bowhouse. A bowhouse was a building in which cattle could be housed over night or during winter. In this context, the term bow is probably based on the term bow, meaning a herd of cattle.

The Breadalbane estate had a significant number of bowhouses and may have used the term to describe farms for which it supplied some of the working stock, presumably as part of a steelbow tenure. Yet despite their labelling as bowhouses, such touns were not exclusively stock farms. Rentals also list the amount of sowing allowed for bowhouse tenants in terms of oats or oats and bere, so that the farming economy of these bowhouse touns would have been little different in terms of their basic character to that of other touns on the estate. Even the presence of buildings that could house cattle would not have distinguished them, for all touns had some form of byre provision for stock, since all touns needed to house stock for shelter and to accumulate their manure.

A rare glimpse of the detail underpinning such arrangements is provided by evidence relating to a dispute in nearby Glen Lyon. In a dispute, tenants were interrogated over what provision they had for the stock that they were allowed to maintain. Each in turn talked about the number of 'stalls' they had for cattle and whether the number of stall matched the exact number of cattle that they were supposed to have. In effect, the number of stalls would have been a statement about their byre capacity. Farming touns of the Ben Lawers area would also have had stalls for their animals.

If there was a difference between bowhouses as listed in early Breadalbane rentals and the ordinary farming touns on the estate then it probably lies in the nature of their rent bundle. As a rule, all touns produced cheese and butter for subsistence, for marketing so as to raise cash, and for the part payment of their rents. However, when we look at the rents paid by bowhouses, the amounts of butter and cheese paid were more substantial. Payments of butter were recorded in terms of the amount paid but cheese payments were formulaic, tenants paying so many stones 'yeirlie out of ilk cuppil of calfit kye', usually an amount that varied between 7 and 9 stones. If there is a difference between bowhouses and other touns, then a case can be made out for seeing it as centered on the greater role played by dairy produce in their rent bundle. When describing the amount of cheese paid by bowhouses, Breadalbane rental entries use the term 'couple'.

A great deal of cheese and butter production was coarried out at shieling sites Understanding what this term means can tell us much about early stock farming in the Highlands, not just that of bowhouses. If we look at the breakdown of stock, herds were divided between milk and yeld cows, that is, between those in milk and those not in milk. At first sight, it might be thought that the term 'couple' captures this distinction, with each cow in milk being partnered with one not in milk. In fact, sources for elsewhere in the Highlands make it clear that it referred to the fact that farmers reared each calf on the milk of two cows, one for each 'couple', one calf being slaughtered. Why this should be so relates to the low milk yields of traditional Highland cattle.

Exact figures for milk output are scarce. John Walker estimated in 1764 that the best cows on Skye produced only one quart of milk a day whilst the average was only one pint! Milk output in the Ben Lawers area would have been better than this but not significantly better. If, as well as rearing calves to maintain stocking levels, farmers needed dairy produce for subsistence and if, in addition, they were burdened with demands for cheese and butter as rent, then such low yields created a dilemma. Having one calf raised on the milk of two cows was a solution, enabling herd size to be maintained whilst releasing milk for cheese and butter, but such a strategy had implications for herd structure. It meant that for every two cows in milk, there would only be one calf, so that when we look at a typical herd, there were half as many one-year olds and half as many two year olds as there were cows in milk. Where we can reconstruct herd composition for the Central Highlands, it conforms to such a pattern. Some Breadalbane tacks confirm such a herd structure, a structure that we can link back to the system of dairying.

Robert Dodgshon

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