25/09/2026
🐄The full picture behind the figures for Gower’s free-roaming animals and the Cattle invisible fence Collars🐄
Following an article circulating on social media, we would like to clarify the figures we have recorded, the role of cattle collars, and the work that has taken place across Gower over the past eight years.
When Friends of the Gower Commons began recording incidents at the end of 2018, we recorded 140 animals hit in one year. That figure covered Gower’s approximately 17,000 acres of common land. It was not a figure for Fairwood Common alone.
For 2024–25, we recorded 33 deaths this number had steadily fallen over the years across Gower’s commons. Most of those deaths involved sheep, with a smaller number of cattle and horses. It is important to be precise! We have seen the number of recorded deaths come down over the years, but one death is still one too many.
This has been a sustained effort involving many people. We have raised awareness through social media, television and radio appearances, the Evening Post, leaflets and regular articles in Gower Magazine. We attend the Gower Show every year and regularly speak to residents and visitors about why the animals are on the commons and the important job they do, and care needed when driving through them. We are still doing this work, still recording incidents and still working actively to reduce the numbers.
Signs have been another part of that effort. Right at the start, the Pettifor Trust provided funding when we went out and made signs by hand to place across the commons. Since then, funding from organisations including the Gower Society and Gower National Landscape (swansea council team) has helped provide the large, 12-foot signs at entrances to every common. Local and Community councils have also given funding and donations to support our work.
We have worked closely with the Gower Commoners Association and continued to take part in multi-agency meetings organised by Councillor Lyndon Jones. Those meetings are still taking place. Local councillors, community councillors, the local police and other partners have all played a part. GoSafe has been out monitoring speeds on the commons, as have local police officers. Keeping this issue visible and working together year after year has mattered.
Where do the cattle collars fit in?
The collars were introduced on Fairwood around two years ago. Three graziers on Fairwood currently use them for their cattle. The graziers have reported that they value the technology because it gives them greater control over where their cattle graze. We believe the collars are a significant asset and hope they will encourage more graziers to use the commons in future.
However, the collars currently cover cattle only. They do not cover sheep or horses, and sheep make up the largest share of the deaths we record. It would therefore be wrong to suggest that collars alone account for the reduction in incidents, or that they can solve the problem across Gower. I hope that, as the technology develops and becomes available for other animals, it may offer further help.
Their use has also been limited over the past 12 months because of wildfire concerns. This points to another serious issue: the build-up of vegetation on commons where grazing has declined.
Gower needs its graziers and its free-roaming animals. Cattle, sheep and horses graze different plants and at different heights, helping to create a varied pattern of vegetation. As farming declines so does the amount of free roaming animals, parts of the commons have become harder to manage and vegetation that can fuel fires has built up and funding is being sort to restore the health of the commons Accross Gower. Heavy machinery cannot easily maintain every area because of the terrain. We urgently need practical support for existing farmers and ways to encourage more graziers to return to the commons. Grazing helps care for these landscapes and keep them accessible to the public. The free roaming animals and farmers are the very ones who have created our SSSI land and our original AONB status which is now called Gower National landscapes.
Controlled burning plans are being established in many areas, and further discussions are taking place about how to reduce the fire load safely. These include proposals for suitable pilot areas where firefighters and partner organisations could train. This is part of the wider work needed to manage the commons; no single measure will do it all.
A request to everyone driving across the commons: please slow down and stay alert. Animals may be on or close to the road at any time. Until there are more ways to protect sheep and horses as well as cattle, the care drivers take remains especially important.
If you are involved in a collision with a free roaming animal, stop safely and report it promptly. Call 999 if someone is injured or the road is dangerously obstructed. Otherwise, call 101. Drivers have legal duties following collisions involving these animals; failing to meet them can be an offence. A prompt report also helps the police arrange assistance for an injured animal.
We wanted to explain all of this because there appears to have been crossed wires between the data we provided and what has been written. The collars are valuable, but the progress made across Gower reflects eight years of awareness work, signs, incident recording, speed monitoring, grazing and continued cooperation between many people and organisations. We will keep working to reduce the numbers further.
Finally, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped: the local councillors and community councillors, the Gower Society, the Gower Commoners Association, Gower National Landscape team (swansea council), the Pettifor Trust, South Wales Police, GoSafe, our graziers, and every resident and volunteer who has supported this work. Your time, funding and commitment have helped make the situation better. There is still more to do, and we will continue doing it.
