Hill sheep farming

Look out for sheep grazing on the moors, nibbling grasses and heather shoots.

Only the toughest breeds of sheep, like Scottish Blackface and Swaledale can survive on the cold, windy moors. These sheep have a thick woolly fleece to keep them warm. The wool contains a type of grease called lanolin which makes it waterproof.

Hill farmers earn money by selling some of their lambs that are born in the spring. The lambs are sold to other farmers who fatten them up and then send them to be turned into the meat that we buy in shops. In some areas farmers also collect the sheep in every summer to shear or clip their wool to keep the sheep cooler and cleaner.

Farmers used to be paid well for fleeces but now it costs more to shear the sheep than the amount they are paid for the fleece.  It is now very difficult to earn a living from hill sheep farming and the National Park Authority is keen to help farmers as much as possible by offering advice and helping to pay grants. The sheep flocks on the moors have been bred for many years and the sheep are 'hefted'. This means they are born with an instinctive knowledge of their 'patch' and they don't wander too far. If these sheep flocks were to disappear it would be impossible to replace them.  

Find out more about moorland sheep flocks under threat 

People can help hill sheep farmers by:

• shopping at farmers' markets and buying local lamb
• driving carefully on moor roads to avoid running sheep over (around 200 sheep are killed on moor roads every year)
• keeping dogs on a short lead when there are sheep about