Upland sheep farming in extensive hill systems faces unique welfare challenges from weather extremes, predation, injury, and limited stockmanship contact compared to lowland systems.
Extensive upland sheep systems provide animals with large areas of grazing that allow natural ranging behavior, but welfare management challenges are significant. Weather extremes cause hypothermia mortality in lambs and ewes. Ectoparasites including blowfly, ticks, and lice cause welfare harm that is harder to monitor in extensive systems with low stockmanship contact. The welfare-positive aspects of extensive grazing — space, behavioral freedom, natural forage — must be maintained while addressing the welfare harms through improved monitoring, appropriate parasite management, and targeted intervention during lambing.