Just spent a few days walking on the northern section of the Pennine Way. Is it just my suspicious nature or do farmers deliberately graze their cattle on sections of the trail just to churn it up. And if that's not enough, why do they have to criss-cross the trail with the deep and (in this current weather) muddy ruts from four by fours and tractors. Don't think I've ever come across so much mud in my life. It's perhaps not surprising that fewer and fewer folk are walking the Pennine Way!

It's quite likely that farmers are being encouraged by English Nature to graze with cattle to "improve" the vegetation. There is something to be said for this practice, as cattle graze differently from sheep, but it doesn't half make a mess of the ground from a walker's point of view.

English Nature are certainly encouraging farmers to graze with cattle in the Lake District, at the same time as reducing sheep stocking levels. This is supposed to increase biodiversity. It seems to me that little public discussion has taken place. Many people would like to see the Lake District remain "overgrazed" by sheep, i.e. the traditional hill farming methods retained.

Personally I'm not sure. I would like to see more trees (and have no objection to what is disparagingly called "scrub" ) but I'm not very keen on cattle on the rough grassland, and this last summer they have really churned up footpaths and bridleways. Cattle tend to use the paths, just like us.

I wrote to English Nature about the damage cattle have been doing above Eskdale, but have not received any reply, not even an acknowledgment. I will be writing again as I would like to hear a justification for their policies, and they should be accountable to the public.

Some of the use of cows stems from an incident on an NNR when a group of trail bikers ripped up some protected limestone grassland after breaking down fences to get to a particular site. Everybody was horrifed, except that a few months later, the area which the bikers had "destroyed" was covered in rare plants which had managed to germinate when not being out-competed by grass.
Cows do the same job. The ground needs to be "poddled" to allow some plant species time and space to germinate.
Other NNRs use ponies....
I suspect, though, that the problem in Northumberland is more a product of the wet weather. Most of the PW is covered in stone flags - except short sections in Northumberland which substantially belong to commercial forestry. But the PW has always been a boggy, muddy mess. Its been raining since June...... no need to panic! It'll dry out once we get one of those long, hot globally warmed summers we've been promised if we dont recycle our plastic bags...

I walked a bit of the Pennine Way near Hadrian's Wall last November. Very very muddy - but also signs of a footpath repair team at work. It wasn't just walkers suffering, as we had to pull a near-drowning sheep out of a ditch

It has always seemed muddy to me and quite a few walks in Yorkshire seem to go through farm fields.In Scotland the only animals i see are sheep.Dave

The PW has always been boggy and muddy due to the climate and nature of the geology it crosses. It was much worse before long sections were flagged to help control erosion. I would think most farmers have more important things to think about than deliberately using their cattle to make things unpleasant for walkers.