Herdwick men looking at headaches galore
Herdwick men looking at headaches galore
Foot-and-mouth has imposed
a raft of long-term
management problems for
Herdwick breeders.
Jeremy Hunt reports
LAKE District sheep producers face a mountain of management problems in the aftermath of foot-and-mouth and are bracing themselves for MAFFs proposed summer blood testing of fell flocks.
Although more than 30% – about 30,000 head – of Herdwick sheep were slaughtered during the outbreak, breed society secretary, Geoff Brown, says the crisis is far from over.
"Ewes and lambs have been turned back to the fell on many farms, but MAFF has openly stated its intention to undertake blood sampling during the summer.
"But even against such uncertainty, Herdwick breeders face a mountain of management problems. The entire pattern of traditional fell flock management and shepherding has been destroyed," says Mr Brown.
He is about to undertake a detailed audit of flocks to ascertain the number of Herdwick sheep remaining in Lakeland. But he admits that locating sufficient numbers of Herdwick ewes to replace the 30,000 lost during the crisis will be difficult.
"We have lost vast numbers of female sheep and several hundred tups. One farm alone lost 100 tups.
"It is a desperate blow to breeders who had been working hard for three years on a scrapie blood-testing scheme. Over 1500 rams had been tested. They had been ruthless in their selection in an effort to achieve a strong gene pool of scrapie resistant stock. Now all that work has been lost."
Mr Brown says the biggest irony of all is the loss of tens of thousands of Herdwicks which were caught up in contiguous culls on lowland farms where they were being away wintered.
"Away-wintering has risen sharply as breeders have fulfilled obligations under English Natures requirements to reduce stocking rates on the fells. This placed vast numbers of sheep – including over a third of the 25,000 replacement hoggs – in the eye of the storm."
To replace an entire generation of Herdwicks will require radical action. It may be necessary to import hill breeds from other regions of the UK and to implant them with Herdwick embryos.
"But it would be a huge logistical problem to source enough sheep, move them, then undertake an ET programme and finance it. But if discussions along these lines do not begin soon the breed risks losing an entire breeding cycle.
"Even if an ET scheme can be undertaken, it will create pressure on enclosed land. Any hill breed females used could not be turned on to the fell. Using ET in this way may be an option, but it will mean lower land is grazed out leaving no in-bye for making winter fodder," says Mr Brown.
Crossing older Herdwick ewes with Texel and Charollais rams and managing the higher-value lamb crop on lower ground, has been a successful venture for many flocks. But it may be necessary to ask Herdwick flockmasters to breed all their sheep pure to bolster numbers, he says.
"While this would help, producers would face a loss of income by depriving their business of higher value crossbred prime lambs.
"Compensation for sheep slaughtered through F&M is not going to fund the ongoing loss of income producers face. And MAFF must recognise, in financial terms, the ecological value of these sheep."
But the Herdwick Society has been in discussion with Heritage Lottery and it is possible that some funding may be available.
"The hefting issue means that, where entire fell stocks are replaced, there is going to have to be a much higher level of shepherding on fell grazings. We have been talking about provision of cash to pay for the higher labour cost of shepherding with the Heritage Lottery." *
HEFTED FLOCKS
• Finding stock difficult.
• ET possible solution.
• Pressure on forage stocks.