Outwintering Cattle in Scotland

Join the PFLA tour to visit a holistically-managed farm, and hear what they have learned about outwintering cattle.

Philip Close has been outwintering the cows for over ten years. He and his daughter, Heather, have definitely had more success over the last couple of years since participating in Holistic Management training in 2019.



Outwintering capacity has always been the limiting factor on our herd size, especially as the SW of Scotland is generally pretty wet. However, since completing the Holistic Management Course a couple of years ago, reading widely on different grazing approaches and focusing on extending our rest periods significantly, we are seeing our outwintering capacity increase.

We seem to have more grass each year, even though we have more cows! This will obviously plateau at some point when we reach the natural stocking rate for our farm and management approach but we’re enjoying seeing where it takes us.

-- Heather Close, Littleton Farm