Agricultural History Review, Volume 64 Part 2 (2016), p. 271

This in-depth study of hill sheep farming, especially as regards nutrition, is not aimed at the agricultural historian, but nevertheless provides considerable food for thought for anyone interested in the evolution of our northern landscapes. The book is targeted at the non-farming professional concerned with the management of cultural landscapes. In places, it is highly technical, and perhaps is not for the fainthearted, but it is worth persisting with, not least for the occasionally stunning and always informative photographs, especially those attributed to Kath Birkinshaw.

Lying behind the work is the big question of the balance between shepherding as a business requiring a financial return, and the hill farmers’ role as custodians of the countryside, managing a ‘non market public good’, namely a landscape which is regarded by visitors as wild and natural, but which the sheep themselves have created over thousands of years. As Humphries makes clear, if grazing ceased, or even if stocking densities were to be significantly reduced, the grassland of the hills would revert to ferns and heather, followed in time by a birch scrub, and eventually a climax woodland vegetation. This question has become more urgent recently with the purchase by the National Trust of Thorneythwaite Farm, Borrowdale, pricing out local farmers, with the intention of reducing sheep numbers and encouraging wood cover as a means of providing natural flood management. It is perhaps a pity that the author nowhere mentions ‘rewilding’, although its presence is the elephant in the room throughout the book, especially when we recall George Monbiot’s description of the Lake District as ‘sheep-wrecked’, and his referral to the ‘white plague’ of sheep which, in his opinion, no longer have any place on the fells.

Of particular interest to historians is Humphries’ account of the changing structure of the flocks, and the impact this has had upon the demands they place on the vegetation. From Neolithic to Norman times, mixed flocks grazed the fells, producing meat, milk and wool on a subsistence basis. The make-up of the flocks changed with the introduction of commercial wool production by the Cistercians and others, as the flocks came to be dominated by wethers (castrated males), which were clipped for three or four years, then sold on for mutton. This economy lasted effectively until the appearance of the first New Zealand lamb shipments in the 1880s. Tastes changed, and there was no longer a demand for mutton, while later the price of wool collapsed. The hill farmers responded by replacing their wether-dominated flocks with flocks of breeding ewes, and their output changed from wool to lamb. But, whereas the wethers could thrive on the rough grazing of the hills, the nutritional needs of a ewe, especially one carrying twins in late pregnancy, may be three times greater. This has resulted in the growing importance of the ‘in-bye’ lands for winter fodder – but also requires expensive supplements of cereal-based products, with added protein, minerals and trace elements, especially during the ‘hungry gap’ from January to April, when pregnant ewes draw heavily on body reserves, as they also do during early lactation.

Yet although supplementary feeds are the hill farmers’ greatest variable cost, nevertheless the main source of nutrition for their flocks continues to be the ‘natural vegetation’, itself a misnomer. While the vegetation may ultimately be determined by the soils, climate and topography, it is modified by management systems such as burning, which encourages a species mix, and gives greater grazing choice, while over-grazing reduces selectivity and encourages the predominance of certain species. Humphries is particularly good on the strengths and weaknesses of the range of species the non-specialist tends to lump together under the generic name, ‘grass’. Thus we learn that sheep’s fescue (Festuca ovina) is probably the best all-round feedstuff, while molinia is highly variable at different seasons, and heather is of low digestibility, limiting milk production and hence lamb growth. Chapter Six, with its detailed descriptions of the commonly grazed plants, and accompanying photos, is of particular interest.

The traditional practice of grazing the sheep on the hills for much of the year, bringing them down to the in-bye in winter, to supplement grazing with hay and browse, has been modified such that the ewes now come down to the in-bye for ‘tupping’ (mating) in November-December, then return to the fells until April for lambing, returning again to the fells from June to October, apart from a brief return for clipping in July. Although we talk of ‘hill farms’, the enclosed lowland of the in-bye is in fact crucial to survival and the hills cannot be considered in isolation from them. Historically, up to the twentieth century, the in-bye grew oats and root crops for the livestock, and potatoes for the humans, on a small-scale rotation. Reseeding of grassland was rare and fertilization was by animal dung and urine, with perhaps a little lime. Today, the in-bye is drained, and fertilized with nitrogen, phosphates and potassium, and is sown with grass and clover.

The fell pastures where the flocks spend much of their lives are sometimes common land, and are often in ‘heafs’ to which the flocks are habituated from one generation to the next. These pastures fall squarely into the EU category of ‘Less Favoured Areas’, areas with natural handicaps of climate, infertile soils and topography and are only suited to low-intensity systems. The policy aim, both within the EU and within Defra is to balance livestock production in these areas with other ‘public goods’ - the flora, fauna and ‘landscape’ – and the improve environmental outcomes whilst increasing food production (Defra 2011). But are these outcomes mutually incompatible? Heather moors, perhaps thought of as the typical landscape of the hills, covers some 466 kHa of England, an area equivalent to twice the size of the Lake District, spreading from the Borders, through Cumbria and the Pennines, to Derbyshire and reappearing in the south-west (the author is not concerned with Wales or Scotland). That landscape, and the wider surrounding grassy hills, are the creation of sheep husbandry. Sheep today are healthier and more productive that at any time in history, thanks to an understanding of sheep nutrition. But shepherding is a business whose aim is to produce from a fixed amount of land, the maximum number of good-quality lambs each year, at minimum input and allowing for uncontrollable variable such as the weather. That output depends on the health of the ewes, which in turn is dependent upon breed and feed. This book makes a useful contribution in helping the non-specialist to understand a little of the feed variable.

The book contains a useful glossary of hill-farming terms from the different regions. If you ever wondered about the difference between a tup, a wether and a gimmer, or the difference between a hogg and a twinter, you need go no further.