Dartmoor National Park Authority

Current Issues (Land Management)

Viability of Upland Farming

The importance and relevance of farmers and landowners to National Parks cannot be overstated.  Farmers and landowners traditional management of the land has been and still is, the major means, of achieving National Park Purposes. This fact is clearly underlined in the National Park Authority’s new National Park Management Plan, where upland farming’s importance is a clear cross-cutting theme throughout the document.

The viability of farming within the national park though has changed quite significantly following changes in the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which began in the 1990s.  On Dartmoor these reforms have led to a dramatic fall in profitability.  

The new farm support (Single Payment Scheme or SPS)  pays per hectare based on a variable rate that pays more in lowland areas than it does in the uplands.  This is a complete reversal of the case before the introduction of the Single Payment Scheme. Upland farmers now  find themselves  not only in direct competition with their lowland farming colleagues when it comes to marketing and selling produce, but are in receipt of substantially less support than lowland farmers who already have the advantage of better agricultural land on which to raise their stock.

A recent steep rise in the price of animal feed, straw, fuel, plastics, etc. has greatly increased the cost of rearing stock whilst the price that stock from the uplands are sold for has remained static.  Farmers are now saying that it no longer makes any sense to keep stock on the hills.

The Dartmoor National Park Authority’s aspirations are for a profitable hill farm economy that can deliver National Park Purposes and National Park Management Plan goals. The farmers’ management of the land ensures that unique habitats, species and historical features remain conserved, and provide through continued grazing ease of access to the whole of the commons.  Long vegetation or even scrub will diminish the public’s ability to wander across the vast area of the commons at will.

The National Park Authority is therefore working in close partnership with other statutory agencies and farmers in lobbying government hard on the importance to National Parks of upland farming.

One of those means is through the South West Upland Federation (SWUF), an alliance o ffarmers, statutory agencies and public bodies involved in the Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin areas.

The National Park Authority is also working very closely with farmers through its Hill Farm Project and is a member of the National Farmers Union’s recently formed SW Uplands Task Force, a partnership of all local statutory agencies, NFU, CLA, RSPB, public bodies and farmers in Devon, Cornwall and part of Somerset.

Research - Hill Farming systems in south west England: economic viability and delivery of public goods.

Dartmoor, Exmoor National Park Authorities and the Duchy of Cormwall commissioned Exeter university to assess the impact of changes in public financial support to upland farmers in south west England.
The report paints a bleak picture of the future for the south west's hill famers. The report will be used to support the call to reward farmers for their environmental management of the uplands.

Summary of the report. 113 Kb (PDF Help)

Full report   624 Kb (PDF Help)

South West Uplands audit 50 Kb (PDF Help)

Page updated 21 August 2009