Conservation Herd Manager

Covering over 6,000 acres, this ancient Forest grazed wood-pasture, together with 1,700 acres
of rural farmed estate (the Buffer Lands Estate), stretches 12 miles from Manor Park in East
London to just north of Epping in Essex. Epping Forest is of national and international
conservation importance with two thirds of its area designated as a Site of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC). It is also surrounded by a special
historic landscape including other protected sites, such as the Grade II* Registered Park and
Garden of Copped Hall.

Grazing is an essential element of the management of these designated sites.

Epping Forest, with 13 million visits per year is also London’s 5th most visited free
attraction and the largest public open space in the London area.

This is a great opportunity to play a key role in the development of the current large pedigree
breeding herd of English Longhorns for projects, including carbon sequestration/storage and
biodiversity gain. The herd ensures extensive grazing in one of England’s most prestigious
conservation sites with new and expanded areas of grazing planned over the next 5 years under a
recently updated and Trustee-approved Grazing Action Plan.

Grazing is carried out in this public open space using fenceless (virtual) grazing technology
for which the Forest was the UK pioneer. The most up-to-date GPS system is now employed for
all-year round grazing across multiple sites alongside traditional fenced areas and these would
be your responsibilities to maintain day-to-day. You will also lead the winter calving
operation. In addition, you will ensure other vital infrastructure is in good working order at
all times. During your daily work at sites you will liaise with visitors to the Forest and
dynamically manage the interactions between the public and the grazing operations to ensure
visitor safety and animal welfare, including the ‘Five Freedoms’.

Hard-working and motivated by nature and landscape conservation, as well as enthusiasm for
managing cattle, you will bring to the role proven practical knowledge of cattle management and
breeding herd development. As part of the Conservation Section Team, you will be responsible
for keeping the annual Forest Grazing Programme in the SSSI/SAC sites on track. You will also
ensure scheme-compliant and flexible grazing management of all other grasslands covered by
agri-environment grants.

This is a full-time and residential appointment. You will be provided with a 3- bed lodge on
the Forest for the better performance of your duties. In managing the Longhorn herd and
overseeing the day-to-day site management alternate weekend working will be required with 3.5
hours on each second Saturday and Sunday followed by a full week-day off in the following week.
The Sat and Sunday working will attract unsocial hours payments as detailed above. As a
residential employee you will be part of a team on-call for 1 week every 6 weeks.

Working from the Warren Offices Loughton and in winter, also based at the Great Gregories Yard
cattle facility, you will travel around the Forest, Buffer Lands Estate and surrounding areas.

For an informal chat please contact John Phillips on 020 8532 5337.

Closing date: 12 noon on 19 November 2025

Interviews will be held on 26 November 2025.

To apply online please click the apply online button.

Alternatively, please contact 020 7332 3978 (24 hr answerphone) quoting reference number
OENV898 if you experience any difficulties. A minicom service for the hearing impaired is
available on 020 7332 3732.

If this role is advertised as a secondment, secondments are subject to the agreement of your
department releasing you, therefore, you need to discuss this with your line manager prior to
applying. The purpose of this will be to discuss what, if any, impact your secondment might
have on the service and service delivery should your application be successful, and how this
might be addressed.

The City of London Corporation is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications
from all sections of the community.

We reserve the right to close the advert earlier should we receive a high number of
applications.

Because our roles are so varied, we don’t have a ‘one size fits all’ policy for workplace
attendance. How many days a week you’ll be required to attend your workplace will depend on the
requirements of your role. It’s important that you understand the requirements before applying
to ensure you are able to meet them. We are committed to considering requests to work flexibly
and job share. Requests will be considered by the recruiting manager in line with our policies
and business needs.

We will be reviewing this policy and approach at regular intervals to ensure we’re meeting our
attendance needs.

The City of London Corporation is currently undergoing a programme to ensure that our pay and
reward practices are competitive and equitable across the whole organisation, to ensure that
everyone has the opportunity to thrive in the work that we do.