The Tenant Farmers Association has endorsed the National Sheep Association’s report on the "Complimentary Role of Sheep in Less Favoured Areas" published today.
TFA Chief Executive George Dunn said the report captured the importance of breeding livestock production to the uplands, environment and economy.
"With Natural England happily abandoning its much criticised vision for the uplands, the TFA hopes for the development of a more thoughtful approach on policy within which breeding livestock will play a key role."
"This chimes with the TFA’s "2020 Vision" for the uplands published in 2010 which set out the need for a new framework for ensuring sustainable development of upland areas with support focused on re-establishing ruminant livestock production as the cornerstone of land management for these fragile areas," said Mr Dunn.
Livestock farming in hill and upland areas provide a basis upon which the management of the landscape and ecology may be assured due to the knowledge within the farming community.
But the harsh conditions experienced by farmers in the hills and uplands makes land management both costly and difficult.
"Without public support many of these farms would find it impossible to break even. Hill and upland areas have been badly affected by a number of major shifts in policy and in reward structures over past years. The TFA would argue that the most significant of these negative impacts was the introduction of the Single Payment Scheme in 2005. It provided a specific, major blow to farming in the Severely Disadvantaged Areas (SDA) and had wider ramifications through the ending of payments on breeding livestock rendering those enterprises relying upon breeding stock in difficulty and now in decline," said Mr Dunn.
