Overstocking sheep causes competition for resources, increased disease transmission, and deteriorating land condition; appropriate stocking rates protect welfare for both sheep and the land they graze.
Sheep stocking density affects welfare through multiple pathways: competition for forage leading to nutritional stress in subordinate animals, disease transmission facilitated by close proximity, and physical welfare problems from poached ground conditions. Appropriate stocking rates that match land carrying capacity protect all these dimensions simultaneously while also preserving long-term land productivity. The commercial pressure to maximise stocking creates welfare risk that appropriate density standards can address.