Extensive Sheep Farming: Welfare in Hill and Mountain Environments

Extensive hill sheep farming provides significant freedom but also exposes animals to severe weather, parasites, and difficult lambing conditions that require active welfare management.

Key Facts

The UK has approximately 22 million sheep — many in extensive hill systems
Lambing outdoors in early spring exposes ewes and lambs to cold, wet, and predation
Sheep are highly susceptible to internal parasites including Haemonchus contortus
Flystrike — blowfly larvae in living tissue — is a leading welfare issue in warmer months
Shepherding practices have evolved significantly with remote monitoring technology

Welfare Considerations

Hill sheep experience a wider behavioral repertoire than their intensively housed counterparts — open grazing, social choice, and natural cover-seeking — but also face welfare challenges specific to exposure. Hypothermia kills newborn lambs born into cold wet conditions. Flystrike causes extreme suffering as larvae burrow into living tissue. Footrot causes lameness across entire flocks. The welfare of hill sheep depends substantially on shepherd attention, which is increasingly stretched as flock sizes grow and labor costs rise.

What You Can Do

Support agri-environment schemes that fund adequate shepherding ratios for hill flocks
Choose lamb from systems with documented welfare standards including lambing supervision
Advocate for flystrike prevention requirements as part of farm welfare certification
Support research into more effective parasite control that reduces anthelmintic resistance
Learn about the welfare challenges of hill farming before making judgments about extensive systems