page_title: Land-use in Wales
section_title: Grassland
hierarchical_section_title: Land-use in Wales / Grassland
caption_attribution_description: English: Heathland north of Llyn Llech Owain Looking northwards towards Afon Tywi in the distance. This area has a bird hide just off to the left for viewing rare species.
context_page_description: Wales has a surface area of 20,779 km² or 2,077,900 ha. It has a border with England to the east, and is bounded by the Irish Sea to the north and west, and by the Bristol Channel to the south. It has an oceanic temperate climate which is markedly influenced by the North Atlantic Current carrying warm water from tropical latitudes. As a result, it has a much milder climate than most places in the world at similar latitudes. Altitudes range from sea-level to 1085 m on the Snowdon Massif.
  The ways in which land is used in Wales reflect conditions of climate, geology and topography, modified by long traditions of land management. Sheep-grazed pasture predominates in all of the lowland zone, with arable fields mainly confined to the east of the country, although specialised early potato enterprises are favoured by the mild climate of the western peninsulas of Llŷn and Pembrokeshire. Some parts, like the Vale of Tywi and the coastal plain of Ceredigion are famed for dairy farming, as the combinations of soils and climate mean that good quality grass can be reliably grown.
context_section_description: Grasslands are defined by the Encyclopedia of Ecology and Environmental Management  as areas "dominated by herbaceous species in which grasses or sedges are abundant, accompanied by forbs [herbs which are not grasses or sedges] .... with sometimes scattered shrubs and trees."
  Ley, or improved grasslands are periodically ploughed and re-seeded with cultivated varieties of grasses, sometimes combined with clover, which are deemed suitable for the extant soil and climatic conditions.
  The moist Atlantic climate of lowland Wales is ideal for grass growth, and this is why so much of the land is given over to the production of grass to feed livestock.  Some parts, like the Vale of Tywi, are particularly famed for the production of high quality grass, and consequently, high quality stock – beef and dairy cattle in the case quoted.
  Land used for grazing is called pasture (from the Latin pastus, past participle of pascere, "to feed"). Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as sheep, cattle, horses or pigs. The vegetation of tended pasture consists mainly of grasses, with variable contributions of legumes and other forbs. Pasture is typically grazed throughout the summer, in contrast to meadow which is ungrazed or used for grazing only after being mown to make hay or other forms of conserved grass for animal fodder which can be used to feed the stock outside the growing season.
  "The composition of lowland grasslands in Wales, as in many other parts of western Europe, was transformed during the twentieth century.  Over the period between 1950 and 1980 especially, farmers were encouraged and supported to undertake grassland improvement by ploughing, reseeding, fertiliser application and, where considered necessary, drainage."  During the period between 1930 and 1990, some 97% of the drier types of semi-natural grasslands were lost, converted to improved grasslands which are far more productive, but contain far fewer species.
  Rough grazing land is included under rough grazing in the statistics above, and comprises a range of semi-natural vegetation types that are generally not cultivated or fertilised. There are large swathes of land dominated by purple moor-grass (Molinia caerulea). This coarse and tussocky grass has low value for grazing, and thrives on wet, usually peaty soils in the uplands. It tends to be maintained by light grazing (usually by sheep), which inhibits the growth of trees and dwarf-shrubs like heather and bilberry, and promotes a species-poor plant community. Where grazing is reduced, boggy forms of heather moorland occur. The wettest of these vegetation types are termed mires, although most people would refer to them as bogs. Drier forms of vegetation dominated by ling (Calluna vulgaris) and heathers (Erica species) often with bilberry and a variety of other specialised herbs and shrubs are termed heaths. These once covered large areas of upland Wales, but are now somewhat fragmented, predominating on markedly acidic, shallow soils.  Heathlands also occur to a lesser extent in lowland situations, often in association with gorse (on shallower acidic soils) and bracken (on deeper acidic soils). Coastal heathlands occur where cliff areas are fenced off from grazing stock, and wind exposure severely restricts tree growth. Calluna heaths have become a rarity in Europe, and are the subject of conservation efforts, aimed at maintaining their specialised biodiversity.
caption: Heathland north of Llyn Llech Owain, Carmarthenshire
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