Farm Animals

Sheep Hill Farming Extensive Welfare

Extensive hill sheep farming presents specific welfare challenges from the remoteness and scale of hill management, requiring adapted monitoring and intervention strategies.

Key Facts

Hill sheep are managed at very low stocking densities over large areas
Checking individual sheep welfare is challenging at this scale
Parasite burdens, flystrike, and foot problems are major welfare issues on hills
Remote sensing and drone technology offer new monitoring opportunities
Traditional shepherding skills are declining as labour costs rise

Welfare Considerations

Hill sheep welfare presents unique challenges - the scale and remoteness of hill farming make individual monitoring difficult. Yet these animals experience significant welfare problems from parasites, flystrike, and weather exposure. Adapted monitoring tools and maintained shepherding skills are both needed.

What You Can Do

Support agri-environment schemes that fund hill farm management
Advocate for welfare monitoring requirements appropriate to extensive systems
Support research into drone and remote sensing applications for hill sheep welfare
Learn about the welfare challenges specific to hill and upland sheep farming
Donate to organisations supporting traditional hill farming with welfare focus