UPL8Shepherding livestock on moorland (remove stock for at least 4 months)

What it actually is

The shepherding layer of the moorland family, in its four month form. Two commitments run together. First, all livestock come off the entered land for at least 4 consecutive calendar months each year, resident ponies excepted. Second, whenever stock are on the moor, you take reasonable steps to keep them away from the sensitive features, the places grazing damages, by shepherding, herding, or temporary fencing. The paperwork grows to match: the written calendar becomes a stocking and shepherding calendar, naming the parcels, the sensitive features identified on them, the monthly numbers, the removal and return dates, and the planned shepherding. The family's feeding rules apply, mineral licks only, sited away from the sensitive areas, hay only in extreme weather. GOV.UK's stated aim is grazing managed so the features sensitive to it are avoided wherever possible, for the habitats, the soil, the water below and the historic features.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL8 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?

The removal months are the structural cost: four consecutive months with the moor empty means four months of keep found elsewhere, and which four months you choose decides how hard that is. A flock that winters away anyway can give the moor its empty season without noticing; a system that needs the moor year round cannot. The shepherding itself is time, real days of it across a real moor, and the rate across the hectarage is what pays for those days. Where a farm still has the shepherding habit, this is money for the practice; where the habit has lapsed, the rate is what funds bringing it back, and that is rather the scheme's intention.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, UPL8 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.

Two shelves of evidence stand nearest, and neither quite fits, which is worth saying plainly. The seasonal removal half is closest to Conservation Evidence's assessment of reduced grazing intensity including seasonal removal of livestock, graded Likely to be ineffective or harmful on 30 studies, 30 per cent effectiveness against 70 per cent certainty, a well-measured but mixed wildlife record discussed in full on our WBD6 page; its studies are mostly lowland grassland, not moorland. The moorland-specific record, on the UPL1 page, runs the other way, Likely to be beneficial on 17 studies with reduced grazing repeatedly helping heather, moths and moorland birds. The shepherding half, keeping stock off particular features by active herding, we have found no graded assessment of at all. Its logic is the targeting: the same stock, steered away from the blanket bog, the flushes and the archaeology, damage less for the same grazing, which is a claim about where hooves fall rather than a measured outcome, and we found nothing scored to cite either way.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 704, Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 23/08/2026, and action 647 as carried on the UPL1 page. The reading is Tilth's own.

What you actually have to do

Remove all livestock except resident ponies for at least 4 consecutive calendar months each year. While stock graze, take reasonable steps to minimise their access to sensitive features by shepherding, herding or temporary fencing. Feed nothing but mineral licks away from sensitive areas, hay or haylage only in extreme weather with feeding sites rotated. Produce the written stocking and shepherding calendar each year, and keep the written stocking and shepherding record. Static: the same land throughout.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL8 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

Where it can go

Above the moorland line on permanent grassland or the non-agricultural covers. It can be done on the same area as the moorland grazing actions UPL1, UPL2 or UPL3 and their predecessors, and on its own where they are not taken. The eight month version, UPL10, pays a higher rate for double the empty season.

Source: GOV.UK, UPL8 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.

Consecutive calendar months, chosen deliberately. Four in a row, and which four is strategy: the wet months protect the peat, the nesting months protect the birds, and your system can probably spare one of those seasons more easily than the other. The calendar is where the choice is made and shown.

Resident ponies are the one exception. The fell ponies stay; everything else goes. If ponies are not resident but visiting, they count as stock like any other.

Sensitive features must be named to be avoided. The calendar requires them identified per parcel, which means knowing where the blanket bog, flushes, steep faces and archaeology actually are. The HEFER and any SSSI documentation are the starting map.

Reasonable steps is a standard you evidence, not a vibe. Shepherding days, fence lines moved, stock steered: the record of what was actually done is what makes the words reasonable steps mean something afterwards.

Temporary fencing on designated moor has its own permissions. On SSSIs and commons, even temporary fencing can need consents beyond this scheme. The action permits the tool; the land's own law governs it.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, UPL8 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Which four months the moor can stand empty, and which features the stock must be kept from, are questions answered by your own hill and your own system. The calendar and record the action runs on are diary work, and Tilth is the diary that draws the sensitive features on the same map as the stock. Request an invite.