Extensive sheep farming in upland and hill environments poses distinct welfare challenges from exposure, parasitic disease, and limited veterinary access that affect millions of sheep in pastoral systems worldwide.
Extensive sheep welfare faces a fundamental tension between the natural conditions and behavioral freedom that extensive grazing provides and the delayed detection and treatment of health problems that characterize low-supervision systems. Sheep in upland systems can express natural grazing, social, and movement behaviors largely denied to sheep in intensive systems, but this welfare benefit is offset by the delayed veterinary response when health problems develop. The growing resistance of parasites to anthelmintic drugs is creating a mounting welfare crisis in sheep farming worldwide, as effective parasite control has historically been the primary tool preventing widespread parasitic disease mortality. Integrated parasite management strategies combining selective treatment, refugia-based approaches, and development of resistant sheep genetics represent the welfare-positive response to resistance emergence.