Upland sheep farming covers vast areas of UK countryside, with welfare challenges specific to extensive management including lamb mortality, parasite burden and harsh weather impacts.
Upland sheep welfare is shaped by the tension between the extensive management that defines these systems and the close monitoring that good welfare requires. A sheep with early-stage footrot on a mountainside may not be found and treated for days or weeks. Lambinglosses reflect the combination of harsh conditions, nutritional challenges and management difficulty inherent in extensive upland farming. The welfare solution requires increased stockpersonship investment — more frequent checking, earlier intervention, better nutritional management before and during lambing — at a time when labour costs are rising and farm economics are under pressure.