The history of hill farming is traced from early times and the changes in practices described. The economic problems are analysed and the role of Government intervention has been outlined and assessed.

Research has created a basket of methods to exploit the potential of the ‘upland’ areas and these are discussed in relation to their up-take in practice and the role of the extension services in promotion.

The physical resources are briefly outlined and the contemporary economic development of the industry as influenced by the EEC and other agencies is discussed.

The impact of the demand for recreation, the need to conserve habitats and wildlife and the importance of rural amenity are examined in relation to upland agriculture and the several official organisations involved and proposals are offered. The conflicts in land use and the socio-economic problems of remote areas are discussed and appropriate policy initiatives are proposed.

The hills and uplands lie within the poorer ‘less favoured’ soil and climatic areas which account for almost 10 M ha of the UK's 19 M ha of agricultural land. Rough grazing comprises 6 M ha. Dry matter (DM) production from native hill swards, governed by soil type, climate and species composition, typically ranges from 1 to 5 t per ha, and is highly seasonal. The best grade of native hill sward is the bent-fescue (Agrostis/Festuca) association. Upland permanent pasture sward production is strongly influenced by the proportion of perennial ryegrass and level of fertilizer N input; typically, DM production ranges from 3.5 to 91 per ha.

Constraints to herbage production include acid soils, impeded drainage and shortage of major plant nutrients particularly N and P. Deficiencies of some major nutrients and of trace elements in the plants can consequently have serious implications for livestock performance. Relationships among trace elements are particularly complex. The climate is severe and highly variable, with low temperatures, exposure to wind, high rainfall and frequent winter frosts being notable features. Bracken, rush, gorse, broom and scrub woodland communities are special vegetation problems which adversely affect pasture production and utilization.

Specific improvement techniques for the differing soil type — plant community associations are available but economic considerations are important when making the choice and deciding on the extent of improvement. Addition of lime and fertilizers, and the introduction of improved grass species and white clover, are the keys to enhanced sward production and quality. Maintenance of soil fertility is essential to ensure continued production. White clover is particularly important for animal nutrition and for its ability to contribute to available soil N via rhizobial N fixation. However, fertilizer N has a role in strategically extending the grazing season and for intensifying winter feed production (silage or hay) from suitable land; silage offers the better option.

Current knowledge of the potential nutrient supply that can be derived from indigenous and sown pasture is described and related to classically derived nutrient requirements. From this information, nutrient deficits can be identified for specific times in the ewe's cycle of production. Whilst nutrient deficits have been clearly identified in late pregnancy and early lactation, responses to nutrients and nutrient supply from autumn pasture have not yet been adequately described for the ewe over the mating period.

Nutrient deficits can be met by a combination of tissue catabolism and the provision of supplementary feeding. The dearth of knowledge of the factors influencing tissue catabolism and of the effects of supplementary feeding on herbage intake limits quantification of the amount and type of supplementary feeding to offer.

The principles concerning supplementary feeding in late pregnancy in some circumstances still require elucidation because of the interactions between mid- and late-pregnancy nutrition and this will be illustrated with reference to sheep grazing a predominantly heather hill. However, the principles governing supplementary feeding in early lactation are relatively well understood in relation to sown pastures below 4 cm in sward surface height and these are outlined. Information on the relative importance of milk and herbage in the diet of the lamb to weaning is discussed. The dependence of one part of the annual cycle on the nutrition in other parts of the cycle is stressed.

An assessment of performance of Scottish flocks was made using DAFS census data to impute a lambing percentage. Results showed levels of lambing percentage were generally below potential and threatened viability of hill units.

A postal survey of hill farmers' views on constraints to production was carried out in the Grampian region of Scotland. Farmers were asked for five technical problems in order of importance that they faced and also what management changes, new products or information had affected or would affect their sheep farming. Analysis of 120 replies from farmers owning about 500 000 ewes indicated farmers recognised three major problems. These were tick-borne disease, pneumonia and abortion which accounted for 30% of the problems. Farmers viewed the next most important problems in order of importance as footrot, broken mouth, predators, head fly, barrenness, neonatal deaths, worms, photosensitisation, vaginal prolapse, mastitis, feeding costs, hypothermia, bracken, orf, fluke, pregnancy toxaemia and marketing difficulties. These accounted for a further 40% of problems. Farmers assessed the most important technical advances to be (in order of importance) pregnancy scanning, fluke and worm drenches, pasteurella vaccine, feeding ewes before lambing, feed blocks, clostridial vaccines, land improvement and trace element supplementation. An assessment of technological answers to farmers' problems indicated that, although some technical problems remained unsolved, many practical solutions had been demonstrated but not yet fully taken up by farmers.

Systems of management of beef cows in the hills and uplands seek to make use of the cow's ability to utilise body tissue to maintain production during periods of undernutrition in winter and to replenish body reserves from relatively inexpensive summer grazing.

In spring-calving cows, the periods of winter undernutrition occur during late pregnancy and the early months of lactation. On upland farms, cows with adequate body reserves (condition score 3.5) at the beginning of winter, fed less than 50 MJ ME per day during the final 3 months of gestation and 70 MJ ME per day during the first 2 months of lactation, will lose about 1.5 units of body condition but such a regime will not necessarily result in biologically significant production penalties. Fertilised ryegrass swards maintained at 8 cm sward surface height during the grazing season will support levels of milk production of around 11 kg per day, calf growth rates of the order of 1.2 kg per day and allow full recovery of cow body weight and condition. In hill herds, the magnitude of losses in weight and condition over winter must be restricted to the extent of the recovery which the quality of summer grazing will support.

Similar considerations apply in autumn-calving herds, where the greater part or all of lactation coincides with the period of winter feeding. Cows calving at a body condition score of 3.0 can be fed 75 MJ ME per day from before to one month after mating without prejudicing reproductive performance, and 60-65 MJ ME per day from then until turnout. Where good quality pasture is available, milk production will increase from around 5 to more than 9 kg per day following turnout, calf performance will be enhanced by delaying weaning and cows will recover in full the weight and condition lost during winter. In the hill situation, calves may require to be weaned at turnout if full cow recovery is to be achieved.

Studies on the nutrition of the weaned suckled calf indicate that a policy of feeding weaned calves inexpensively during winter to gain between 0.3 and 0.5 kg per day may constitute a viable alternative to the traditional practice of selling calves in the autumn. Such animals will achieve significantly higher growth rates at pasture in the following summer than calves fed more generously and gaining weight more rapidly during winter.

On some hill farms where opportunities for the conservation of winter fodder are limited but where there is plentiful summer grazing, a system of June calving followed by a short lactation, and in which calves are only very moderately fed over winter, merits consideration.

The areas in which further research is most urgently required to effect significant improvements in efficiency are those concerned with the relationship between nutrition and reproductive efficiency and the induction of twinning in cows.

With no supplementary feed to cow or calf, a suckler cow can produce a calf of 330 kg at 1 year old worth about £380. At 2.5 cows per ha on an upland farm, the system can be self-sufficient for grass and silage. Overall production can be 820 kg live-weight gain per ha with the use of 250 kg N per ha. This is technically an efficient enterprise. It is also profitable, with a gross margin per ha in excess of £800.

Work at Liscombe, in parallel with other centres, has developed to establish minimum healthy diets for the suckler cow whilst producing healthy, fast growing calves. The cow must be fertile and have a long life, producing on average 10 calves. This involves the controlled management of the natural ability of the cow to put on weight quickly in the summer and take it off slowly in the winter.

The winter diet of the cow can vary from (1) restricted silage alone, (2) silage plus untreated straw, (3) untreated straw plus concentrate supplement, or (4) treated straw alone. As a result, the enterprise is very flexible.

On a hill farm, the cow has a major role to control pasture in a subordinate role to sheep. Because of her role in pasture control, a low margin per cow can be accepted as a direct contribution to sheep production.

The grazing ecology of hill and upland swards is discussed in terms of (a) the influence of sward characteristics (species composition; plant maturity and morphology; canopy structure) on the ingestive behaviour, diet selection and herbage intake of sheep and cattle, (b) the reciprocal influence of grazing activity upon the species balance of natural and sown plant communities and (c) the importance of plant responses in limiting the impact of variations in grazing managements upon the net rate of herbage production from sown swards. Emphasis is given to the importance of objective criteria of plant morphology and sward canopy structure both in understanding sward and animal responses to management manipulation and in applying the results of grazing studies in farming practice.

Following the evolution of the “Two Pasture System” of hill sheep management by the Hill Farming Research Organisation (HFRO) at their Sourhope and Lephinmore stations, the model was adopted by the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service at Redesdale experimental husbandry farm (EHF) and by the Scottish Agricultural Colleges at the West College Hill Farm of Kirkton in West Perthshire. At the time, the ADAS Pwllpeiran EHF in mid-Wales was engaged in an exercise based on the traditional Welsh management system in which ewes are kept on enclosed better grazings from tupping until after lambing and then ewes and lambs are summered on the hill.

The paper describes the developments at Sourhope, Redesdale, Kirkton and Pwllpeiran from the mid/late 1960's until the present time (1980 for Kirkton). The four farms differ considerably in climate, topography, soil type, vegetation and size. In all cases, however, between 20-30% of the total resource was subjected to some degree of pasture improvement over the course of the development. In the case of Kirkton and Sourhope, 9% of the resource was reseeded, whilst at Redesdale the corresponding figure was 17%. At Pwllpeiran, most of the improvement involved surface treatment but of a fairly costly nature almost equal to that of reseeding.

In all cases, the improved pasture was used to provide ewe and lamb grazing during lactation and ewe grazing around mating and lambing. Supplementary feed inputs per ewe during late pregnancy increased significantly on all farms. There was an increase in ewe numbers carried, being 99, 139, 42 and 3% greater for Sourhope, Redesdale, Kirkton and Pwllpeiran, respectively. Weaning percentages (lambs weaned per 100 ewes put to the ram) also increased, by 26, 48, 48 and 36% for Sourhope, Redesdale, Kirkton and Pwllpeiran, respectively. Taken together, there was a significant corresponding increase in the number of lambs weaned of the order of 121, 297, 129 and 47%.

Lamb weaning weights were improved in all cases in spite of increased twinning. This weight increase was most significant at Pwllpeiran where a major effort had been made to change breed type with the specific purpose of producing a heavier lamb.

Gross margin data were available for Sourhope, Redesdale and Kirkton and when plotted on a per ewe and per hectare basis follow remarkably similar pathways over the development for the three centres. The gross margin figures per ewe, when discounted to base, show no significant increase and in some cases were reduced up until the introduction of the EEC sheep meat regime in 1981, after which time significant real increases occurred for those developments still in progress (Sourhope and Redesdale). The real increase there occurred as a result of increased stocking rate. On Pwllpeiran, however, where stocking rate increase was low, it is still considered that the exercise was profitable as measured by Internal Rate of Return.

The various increases confirm that investment in land improvement, coupled with an enlightened approach to sheep management, has improved the overall efficiency of pasture utilisation and economic viability.

Upland sheep production systems based on the utilisation of enclosed sown pastures are considered in relation to environmental constraints, recent trends in marketing requirements and a continuing need to improve economic efficiency. The need for quantitatively described decision making in relation to both the testing, development and application of new technology is discussed with particular reference to those factors influencing herbage growth, utilisation and management.

Relatively few upland farms are capable of producing marketable fat lambs before the decline in returns per kg lamb in June. Although higher returns for heavier fat or store lambs can be obtained in the autumn, the degree to which this maximizes the returns per ha will be dependent upon the stocking rate and ewe and lamb performance during the summer. It will also be dependent on the extent to which there is competition for pasture in the autumn and its effect on ewe live weight and condition during the pre-mating and post-mating period; weight and condition will affect reproductive performance which has a substantial effect on returns per ha.

The significance of sward height as a means of controlling the performance of sheep grazing sown pastures is reviewed in relation to ongoing and completed systems experiments and development projects. It is concluded that, for practical purposes, a sward height held between 3.5 and 5.5 cm will provide a sound basis for management of the lactating ewe and suckling lamb until weaning. The means of achieving sward height control in varying farming situations and the development of commercially viable management systems is considered.

In the development of systems towards improving production efficiency, a better description of responses to both level and pattern of N used is required. The need for a better understanding of responses of the ewe in terms of ovulation rate and embryo wastage to changing sward characteristics in the autumn and to the use of supplementary feeding is also required. New techniques, such as the endocrine manipulation of reproductive performance, need to be assessed in relation to existing practices and performance.

The vital criterion in selecting a beef system is to ensure that feed requirements match supplies produced on the farm, with a minimum of conflict with other enterprises. Grass must form the basis of any system with emphasis given to grazing. In quantifying feed supplies, the ability of the suckler cow to store summer grazing, as body fat, must also be included.

Traditionally, enterprises have been evaluated on a Gross Margin basis. On combined beef/sheep units, such comparison must be carefully interpreted if misleading conclusions are to be avoided. Adequate supplies of autumn grazing arc key components for both enterprises. Failure to meet these, results in reduced individual performance or increased winter feed requirements. The grassland requirements of both enterprises must therefore be complementary.

May calving and selling calves store in the spring, prior to lambing, achieves these objectives. An important component of such a breeding enterprise is the tax-free, capital accumulation via the herd basis and beneficial effects on the cash flow. Where capital for investing into breeding stock is unavailable, the purchase of week-old calves in January, for sale at 330 kg the following spring or retained for grass finishing, can also integrate successfully with the ewe flock, minimizing dependence on conserved winter feed and accommodation.

The paper summarises briefly the current status of the major land using activities in the hills and uplands. The dominant land use roles of agriculture and forestry arc explained, as are other uses of recreation, water provision and wild life and landscape conservation. Land use competition in the hills and uplands is seen as the end result of conflicting policy objectives pursued by the major rural resource planning agencies over the past 50 years. The role of these agencies is analysed, as is their ability to meet their objectives in competition with each other. Finally, an attempt is made to establish a quantitative framework within which the interests of the various groups are recognised and priorities in land use can be determined.

The brief from the organisers for this paper was to attempt to draw together the scientific and technical information presented at this meeting and to relate it to land use in the hills and uplands. This requires matters to be set in the context of the political and economic framework within which agriculture makes its contribution to food production, to the generation of economic activity and to the maintenance of the social fabric of the hills and uplands.