Policy that has led to a ‘damaged landscape’

Ken Lumley, the north east regional chairman for the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA), said in recent years the importance of farming in uplands had been diluted and that the roles played by farmers and their livestock in maintaining these areas was not being recognised.

Mr Lumley made the remarks during his address to this year’s North Sheep event at West Nubbock Farm, Hexham, Northumberland.

Addressing delegates, he said: “Many people mistakenly believe that the environment and landscapes of our upland areas have just happened and that they are best left to nature.

“In fact they have been managed carefully by land managers for centuries. Not only are farmers responsible for the stone walls, field barns, hedgerows and field patterns displayed in the uplands, it is through grazing that the heather and grass moorlands and the fragile ecosystems thrive.

“There has been a tendency over recent years for the importance of farming in the uplands to be downgraded. Agri-environment schemes which have encouraged producers to remove livestock from hill areas have contributed to this. Allowing landlords to benefit from these schemes at the expense of their tenants is also causing a problem. The importance of tenants and their livestock has been downplayed.”

Mr Lumley pointed towards the massive explosion of bracken in upland areas as one negative impact of reduced livestock numbers that was already taking place.

He added that the lack of grazing was a major contributory factor in the recent hill fires following the very dry spring. “The mass of dry vegetation allowed those fires to become quickly out of control,” said Mr Lumley.

In order to redress the balance the TFA chief said that there was an immediate need to “again value and nurture stockmanship for the future of our upland areas”.

“Livestock farming provides the most reliable and coherent basis upon which the management of these most beautiful and yet fragile landscapes and ecology will be sustained,” he said.

“We have disregarded the concept of balanced management for too long. In the past this was displayed in an uncontrolled subsidy system which in some areas caused overgrazing but we have now leapt to a situation where it would appear that grazing management is not valued at all,” said Mr Lumley.

Addressing the challenges

Challenges faced by beef and sheep producers in so-called ‘Less Favoured Areas’ are to be the subject of an EBLEX Upland Conference later this month.

Taking place at the Rheged Centre, Penrith, on June 30, the free event will address key areas of management which can contribute to profitable beef and sheep enterprises in the sensitive upland environment.

Visit www.eblex.org. uk