Sustaining Farming in the Westmorland Dales

The Westmorland Dales Hidden Landscapes Partnership Scheme aims to reveal the hidden heritage of this new extension to the Yorkshire Dales National Park and engage people in its understanding, conservation and enjoyment.

Led by The Friends of the Lake District, the overall scheme has 21 projects and has successfully bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a 4 year programme starting from April 2019.

The Farmer Network is one of the project partners and our proposals include:

• Holding 4 knowledge transfer events per year with funding also for performance recording and trial work on farms.
• Developing the skills of the next generation of farmers by supporting two young people through a Skills Development Programme.
• Helping farmers afford the financial cost of training through an extension of the Farmer Network’s training voucher scheme.
• Communication to members of the public of the role livestock farming has in shaping the landscape of the Westmorland Dales with two Farming Landscape/Educational visits events to be funded each year.

The Farmer Network’s project has also received match funding from the Yorkshire Dales Sustainable Development Fund.

The following video outlines local practices of sheep management on the fells. Mark Curr, a 3rd generation farmer at Bowderdale Head, explains how and why sheep are "gathered" from the fell, and brought down to the farm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28FQdcPzDdM

For more details, please contact the project’s coordinator, Carol Moffat, on 07917 666514.