Government policies driving destocking in the uplands

Upland sheep farmers and industry groups have expressed concerns over extensive cuts to stocking numbers in upland areas and have called on the new government to address the problem.

The UK sheep breeding flock has dropped to its lowest point since current records began more than 25 years ago, contracting by 615,000 head in 2023 alone, to 13.8 million head.

Incentives for large landowners to put land into environmental schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) were blamed for some of the more recent declines, with tenant farmers often unable to compete with the high returns being offered as environmental payments.

See also: How an upland farm doubled its hill sheep index in three years

At the NSA Sheep Event in Malvern, Worcestershire on 30 July, a number of farmers voiced concerns about how their own businesses had been affected.

One had already reduced sheep numbers by a third and made staff redundant, while others had been completely forced off large blocks of rented land.

George Dunn, chief executive of the Tenant Farmers Association, warned that a narrative had emerged that livestock were bad for the environment, despite evidence showing they could deliver powerful natural capital outcomes.

“We need to reset the agenda and say, ‘actually, grazing livestock are really good for the environment’,” he said. 

“We have landowners who are being beguiled by so-called new markets for things like rewilding, tree cover and solar, which are removing livestock from those landscapes, to the detriment of those landscapes, and wasting public money in many respects.”

He said he was seeing tenant farmers losing access to land on this basis “willy-nilly”.

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, said ongoing pressures on sheep in upland areas through agri-environment schemes continued to drive down livestock numbers.

“We are starting to see now some of the other government programmes like carbon credits, biodiversity net gain and nutrient neutrality also encouraging some landowners to change their direction and move more towards rewilding,” he added.

“They are not renewing farm business tenancies and squeezing farmers off the land.”

The NFU has suggested that subtle tweaks to SFI could make a big difference, such as allowing supplementary feeding on the moorland options and applying an average stocking density rather than a maximum.

David Barton, chairman of the NFU Livestock Board, told Farmers Weekly the uplands had been somewhat left behind during the transition into new schemes.

“I think most grassland farmers have found the transition is not as good as they would like, and the arable options are more lucrative,” he said. 

“For livestock farms, if you have just got permanent pasture or you’re an upland farmer, you’ve really got to struggle to farm it with the funding gap from what you had previously. It’s a real concern.”

Mr Barton acknowledged, however, that the government seemed to be looking at this issue.