UPL3Limited livestock grazing on moorland

What it actually is

The most restrained of the three moorland grazing densities: no more than 0.04 grazing livestock units per hectare at any time, which in the conversion table's terms is one hill ewe with her lamb to every two hectares. The rest is the family pattern: no supplementary feeding beyond mineral licks, the extreme weather hay exception with mandatory rotation of feeding sites, and the written stocking calendar produced for each parcel at the start of each year. GOV.UK's stated aim is moorland habitat maintained or enhanced under a deliberately limited presence of stock.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL3 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

What it pays, and what that comes to

The rate is in the panel at the top of this page. Multiplied out:

Source: arithmetic on the payment rate shown at the top of this page, which comes from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue and carries its own last-checked date. The 200 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

At scale this is serious money for a moor that suits it, and the moors that suit it select themselves: ground already down to a remnant flock, or ground whose designation and condition were pushing stocking this way regardless. For a working hill flock the cap is severe, one hill ewe with her lamb to two hectares leaves little farming to do, and the honest comparison is between this tier's rate and what the flock the moor loses was worth, hefting and all. Hefts, once lost, do not come back on request, and that is a three-generation consideration inside a three-year agreement.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, UPL3 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The judgements are Tilth's own reading rather than scheme guidance.

Does it work, and what makes it work better

This section is what we have found in published sources about the practice this action pays for. It is not scheme guidance, it is not Defra's or the RPA's view, and it adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out.

The family's evidence, in full on the UPL1 page, leans this tier's way most strongly: the studies behind the Likely to be beneficial grade, 17 studies, 90 per cent effectiveness, 50 per cent certainty, repeatedly tested excluding or heavily reducing grazing, which is closest to what this cap does, and reported more heather, more moths, more bird-diet arthropods and benefits to black grouse. The counterweights transfer with equal force: mixed responses by species and vegetation type, and four studies finding reduced grazing cut soil organism abundance. And the sharpest practical finding in the file cuts at this tier specifically: among the effective treatments for controlling coarse grass dominance was grazing, including by goats, which is the reminder that a moor grazed almost not at all can lose ground to the rank grasses the stock were holding back.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 647, Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 23/08/2026, including the note that studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. The reading is Tilth's own; the fuller account is on the UPL1 page.

What you actually have to do

Hold the density at or below 0.04 GLU per hectare at all times. Feed nothing but mineral licks, with the extreme weather exception and rotating feeding sites. Produce and keep the written stocking calendar each year. Static: the same land throughout.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL3 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

Where it can go

Above the moorland line on permanent grassland or the non-agricultural covers. SSSI consent from Natural England first where designated, an SFI HEFER where historic features stand. One of the supplements UPL5, UPL6 or SPM5 can go on the same land, and SPM5 can also go alongside whichever of UPL5 or UPL6 you take. One of the shepherding actions UPL8 or UPL10 can go on the same land as well, as can the organic rough grazing action OFM3.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL3, UPL8 and UPL10 action pages, checked 23/08/2026.

Things worth watching

This section is Tilth's own reading of where this action is easy to get wrong. It is not scheme guidance, it is not sourced from Defra or the RPA, and none of it adds a requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out.

One mob breaks it. At 0.04, a single gathered flock passing through a parcel can exceed the cap on the day it happens. Movements between hefts and gathers need routing with the cap in mind, which is a map exercise before it is a shepherding one.

The heft is the irreversible asset. Stock can be reduced in a season; a hefted flock's knowledge of its ground cannot be rebuilt in one. If meeting this cap means dispersing hefted ewes, weigh that as the permanent decision it is.

Rank grass is the quiet failure mode. The aim is habitat maintained or enhanced, and a moor understocked into a blanket of coarse grass is not enhanced. The evidence note above is the warning; the supplements that bring cattle and ponies, UPL5 and UPL6, exist partly because their grazing does what a handful of sheep cannot.

The money is large and so is the commitment. Across real moorland hectarages this tier's payments run to serious figures, and so does the restructuring it can demand. The calendar, with real costs against it, is the business plan.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, UPL3 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Whether the moor's future is a working flock at moderate density or near-rest at this one is the biggest call in the family, and it is a question about your farm's shape, not just this agreement. The stocking history that informs it is in your records; Tilth keeps it legible, parcel by parcel, year on year. Request an invite.