Sheep and a sustainable future

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… as we try balancing profitability and environmental responsibility, as we look to maintaining many of our most important wildlife habitats…

Lambing season is already upon us.

There is a lot of sheep farming in Cumbria – where there is also the shepherd and writer James Rebanks (@herdyshepherd1)

There is a lot of Sheep farming in the Sid Valley as well – where there is also the shepherd and farmer Ben Upchurch of Partridge Hill Farm – Free to roam rare breeds direct to customers

There are also legitimate questions around sheep and trees and around sheep and climate change. 

On that note, Dr Natalie Meades of Aberystwyth University has put together a paper with just the conclusion here where she looks at breeding sheep for lower methane emissions:

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has a high global warming potential. Ruminants have been identified as high emitters of methane as a result of enteric fermentation. As such, there is great interest into various methane mitigation strategies. One area of interest is the use of breeding programmes to breed sheep with low enteric methane emissions. Work to date has been promising and is continuing to be researched and developed. Likewise, ongoing research is being conducted to ascertain if there are any potential trade-offs associated with breeding for low methane emissions. Within the UK various research projects have been launched in this area such as Breed for CH4nge and the Welsh Sheep Genetics Programme. It will be interesting to see what results and outcomes these programmes will find.

Finally, looking at the current literature, perhaps there is a possible sustainable future for sheep farming – as we try balancing profitability and environmental responsibility, as we look to maintaining many of our most important wildlife habitats and as we consider ideas such as regenerative wool and sustainable fashion.

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