UPL6Supplement: Keep cattle and ponies on moorland (100% GLU)

What it actually is

UPL5 without the sheep at all: 100 per cent of the grazing livestock units on land entered into UPL1, UPL2 or UPL3 must be cattle or ponies, or a combination of both, shown month by month in the base action's written stocking calendar with cattle age brackets included, applied for in the same application as the base action, and never on the same area as its 70 per cent sibling. The aim is the sibling's, delivered undiluted: the varied sward structure and the check on scrub, bracken and coarse vegetation that heavy grazers provide.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL6 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, stacked on the grazing tier beneath. 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?

For a moor already grazed only by cattle or ponies, this is the sibling's easy stacking money at a higher rate, and there is no reason to take the 70 per cent version instead. For everyone else the threshold is absolute in a way percentages are not: one ewe on the entered land in a grazing season is the difference between this supplement and its sibling, and a hill farm that cannot guarantee a sheep-free moor, its own or its neighbours', should put a real price on that guarantee before choosing this over UPL5.

Source: the payment rates on this page and the UPL5 page; the threshold from GOV.UK, UPL6 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.

As on the UPL5 page: the coarse-vegetation problem the supplement answers is visible in the moorland evidence, where grazing was among the treatments found effective against rank grass dominance within an assessment graded Likely to be beneficial on 17 studies at 90 per cent effectiveness and 50 per cent certainty, but the species-composition claim itself, cattle and ponies over sheep, has no graded head-to-head in the sources this site uses. Credible mechanism, unscored comparison, stated plainly.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 647, Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 23/08/2026. The reading is Tilth's own; the fuller account is on the UPL5 page.

What you actually have to do

Keep 100 per cent of the grazing livestock units on the entered land as cattle or ponies, within the base action's density cap. GOV.UK sets no period on that in the requirement itself; its advice section, which it says is not part of the action's requirements, says the percentage is an annual average. Carry the monthly numbers and cattle age brackets in the base action's written stocking calendar and keep it for the full term. Apply in the same application as the base action, and not alongside UPL5 on the same area.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL6 action page, 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 hundred per cent has no rounding. GOV.UK's advice section says the percentage is an annual average, and at 100 per cent an average leaves no room: a stray ewe on the entered land pulls the year's figure under. On moors bounded by sheep ground, the fences and the neighbours are part of the compliance picture.

Commons make absolutes collective. Where others hold grazing rights, all-cattle is only achievable if everyone's stock says so. On shared moors the 70 per cent sibling is the version with room in it.

The base cap prices the herd. Under a 0.04 limited tier, 100 per cent cattle can mean a very small number of animals ranging a very large moor, which is its own husbandry: water, checking, and cattle with the temperament for it.

Ponies count for, not against. Resident ponies are cattle's partners here, not a complication, and a pony-grazed moor qualifies as fully as a cattle one.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, UPL6 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Whether your moor can be guaranteed sheep-free for three years is a question about boundaries, neighbours and history as much as your own flock. The stocking record that proves it is the one Tilth keeps by species, month by month, parcel by parcel. Request an invite.