Farming: Warning from over the Border

Amid the general optimism expressed at the National Sheep Association event held at Hexham this week, there was a concern that the sheep industry was being marginalised by constraints now being imposed by English environmental schemes.

David Raine, a NSA council member and a sheep farmer based in Penrith, expressed frustration that some of those setting out environmental schemes did not recognise that the north of England was a farmed environment and not purely a natural landscape.

Officials seemed to think they had to protect the environment but the real need was to help protect the farmed environment, he claimed.

Their concentration on environmental protection led to limits on the number of sheep in areas which have for centuries been a part of the stratification in the sheep industry, with breeding flocks on the hills and finishing units on the lower grounds. This constriction on breeding production then resulted in a reduced industry.

The past decade had, through foot-and-mouth disease and lack of profitability, seen a reduction in the numbers of sheep kept but now it was difficult to restock because of limits imposed by environmental restrictions.

He admitted that there might have been some overstocking in some fragile areas ten and 20 years ago but this was far from the case now and the hills could hold many more breeding ewes than they currently do.

Raine pointed to the economic effect this policy could have on a rural area as a reduction in scale in sheep farming impacted adversely on shops, schools and other parts of rural life.

"We are already seeing some valleys becoming commuter towns and villages," he said.

He also urged those setting the rules on sheep numbers to look at the global position where food production was becoming a real issue.