Natuurpunt: cattle that manage the nature reserve

Our cattle graze in Natuurpunt nature reserves, Flanders' largest conservation association, managing over 25,000 hectares of protected landscape. The grazing is not incidental: without large herbivores, open landscapes close in on themselves. The light-loving plants disappear, and the insects and birds that need them go too.

Industrial beef breeds are unsuited to that work. Natuurpunt therefore relies on slow-growing, hardy breeds (Galloway, Scottish Highland, Hereford, sometimes Konik horses). They live outdoors all year. No supplementary feed: they eat whatever the terrain gives them. They are treated as part of the management plan, not as production units.

When an animal reaches the right age, it is slaughtered at a small local abattoir and sold through us. The meat is darker and firmer than supermarket beef, and more complex to taste. That comes from the age, from all the walking, and from a diet of wild grasses and herbs instead of concentrates.

Natuurpunt is a member-based association (over 130,000 members) and publishes its reserve map, management plans and annual reports openly. Natuurpunt sends the papers with every animal: when it was born, which reserves it grazed, how it spent each winter. Bjorn keeps them in the shop. Ask, and he'll show you.