2.7 Hill Resource Management

Abstract

For the purpose of this paper ‘hill resources’ will be interpreted to mean the land resources of the hills and uplands. ‘Management’ will be assumed to include strategic and tactical decision making. It will further be assumed that the invitation is to discuss computers in animal production in relation to farming practice and not to research aimed at improving farming practice. In fact, computers will hardly be discussed at all. Computers are tools in this context and are aids to decision making. It seems much more likely that they will be more effectively used if we can be clear about decision making and its nature in relation to current knowledge and understanding and to the needs of farming systems based on the land resources of the hills and uplands.The official statistical deposition of hill sheep farms in Scotland includes reference to land resources; these farms have more than 90% of the land in rough grazings and less than 15% in crop. The definition includes reference to the allocation of man-days among sheep and cattle. The Scottish upland farm description also includes reference to land resources and there are, for example, constraints in the relationship of crop and rough grazing areas. Hill and upland farms in England and Wales come into the category known as Livestock Rearing farms, where distinction between hill sheep and upland farms is made on the distribution of man-days among cattle and sheep.