Latest news with #sheepfarming
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ending sheep farming in the Lake District is not our aim
Phil Stocker's letter (12 June) defends sheep farming against an attack that doesn't exist. Nowhere in the Guardian article he is responding to (Conservationists call for Lake District to lose Unesco world heritage status, 7 June) does anyone call for 'sheep farming's demise'. Neither the letter I sent to Unesco nor the report that I co-authored, both referred to in the article, call for it either. Instead, we're raising concerns about the Lake District's world heritage site designation, which poses a major threat to exactly the sort of adaptation that Mr Stocker says he wants and that most farmers know is coming. None of the farmers I've spoken to could name a single benefit of being in a world heritage site. Most people won't be aware of the downsides, but for those of us working in conservation, they are obvious. The designation is influencing decisions by the national park authority, which views every element of the park's management through a world heritage lens and puts sheep farming first, often at the expense of rural livelihoods and nature. We are not attacking farming or anybody's culture, and it's a pity that this is how Stocker and many others, including the MP Tim Farron, have interpreted it. For farmers and conservationists to be at loggerheads is madness. Once the dust settles, I hope we will be able to sit down and have some sensible discussion about these issues and how to resolve them. As Mr Stocker attests, farming has played a key role in the history of the Lake District, and it will have a vital role to play in its future, but only if it is allowed to adapt. Removing the world heritage site designation, or amending it to reflect the urgency of the climate crisis, will help that transition to take SchofieldBampton, Cumbria Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Guardian
12-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Sheep farming is integral to the Lake District's heritage
Your piece (Conservationists call for Lake District to lose Unesco world heritage status, 7 June) quotes campaigners who criticise sheep farming in this most revered area of Britain. The Lake District is a national park, with protected and designated sites of special scientific interest. The fact that sheep farming and hefted livestock grazing has been core to its management for over 3,000 years suggests it has created something of value. How ironic that rather than celebrate (and further fine tune) its farmers and graziers, and the surrounding rural infrastructure that depends on this primary activity, ecologists want to see sheep farming's demise. Given the right policy framework and the public being prepared to support local food producers, the Lake District's farmers will be able to continue to adapt and deliver what it wants – the enhancement of natural resources, a nature-rich countryside, and a vibrant society with cultural heritage and a contribution to food security. That surely is what conservation should be about – a recognition of the whole, and not just singular outcomes. Finally, while sheep farming enterprises in these harsh regions may be financially marginal, if they are considered within an economy where money is recirculated locally, creating jobs and enterprise and supporting a rural community, then they're not such poor performers. Public support helps farmers to do more for nature and protect water and other resources. Farmers want to continue looking after the land they have farmed for centuries, ensuring public access, balancing farming with nature, and managing the landscape in a viable way for future StockerChief executive, National Sheep Association Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
RNZ News
09-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Federated Farmers campaign against pine tree planting initiative
Federated Farmers have put up a billboard in Wellington claiming "sheep are not the problem". Photo: Supplied Sheep farmers have stepped up their campaign against the government's reliance on planting pine trees to offset emissions. Under the existing Emissions Trading Scheme, planting pine trees for carbon credits is causing land to be repurposed, as it is generally more profitable to plant pine trees than to farm sheep. Parliament's own environment watchdog has questioned successive governments' reliance on planting trees to meet climate targets. Now, Federated Farmers have put up a billboard in Wellington, claiming "sheep are not the problem". Meat and Wool chair Toby Williams said farming families were being pushed off the land and it was destroying rural communities. He said between 2017 and 2024, more than 260,000 hectares of productive sheep farming land were lost to pine trees. The national sheep flock had reduced from more than 70 million sheep in 1982, to fewer than 25 million sheep today. Federated Farmers wants the government to review the ETS. The government made a series of changes to the legislation in December last year, with the goal of limiting the amount of full farm to forestry conversions. Williams told Midday Report farmers were "really grateful" for those changes, but class 7 land - considered "non-arable" - still had no limit on how much of it could be registered within the ETS. "Quite often what we find is people don't regard that land to be very profitable, or driving a good return, but it's where our ewes live, and our cows live. It's producing the lambs and the calves that we then process into meat," Williams said. New Zealand is the only country in the world that allows 100 percent carbon offsetting through forestry, with other countries putting restrictions in place. Climate change minister Simon Watts has been approached for comment. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
09-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Save our Sheep campaign erects billboards near Beehive
environment farming 25 minutes ago Billboards have gone up in full view of the Beehive and government offices in Wellington in a bold message to politicians to stop sheep farms being replaced by carbon forestry. Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Chair Toby Williams spoke to Charlotte Cook.
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Country diary: A week of relief for all on the farm
After five weeks without rain, it was wonderful to be woken one night last week by the sound of rain being blown on to the bedroom windows. We are well prepared for dry spells like the one this year. In 2022 we sank a borehole on the farm, after successive springs when the water supply dried up, so thankfully we now have water for the house and farm buildings even when there is little rain. The fields rely on natural water, though, and this year the becks ran dry during lambing time. Every morning, I filled the back of the Gator with buckets of water and drove them round the lambing fields. The sheep had to adapt their routine too, as usually they get most of the moisture they need from damp grass. Water is, of course, essential for them to make milk for the lambs, but yows also prefer to lamb during wet weather, often seeming to hold off for a wet morning to lamb. This is believed to be because they know there will be fewer predators around, particularly birds of prey, of which we have many. So lambing was prolonged this year as well as hot. On a wet morning, it was a relief to see that the last yow had lambed, and was happily cleaning her new lamb and murmuring to her. Once it is settled and knows her mother, we will clear the meadows, ready to grow hay (which should be ready to cut in July). Lambs will be marked with our red smit mark before walking two and a half miles over several days down to Low Park Farm, where they will spend the summer rotationally grazing small fields surrounded by woodland strips. Away from weather concerns, a massive relief to me was that a visitor attraction, Into the Wilds, that was proposed for the farm next to ours, was refused planning permission by the Yorkshire Dales national park authority. The plans initially included safari lodges, a ranger base and a variety of exotic animals including white rhinos, giraffes, zebras and lynxes. One of the reasons given was that it would cause 'significant visual harm to the iconic landscape'. I just hope they don't put in an appeal. Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount
