[Marches Farmer]

I saw a snippet on TV (Kate Humble (programme about Wales) on the National Trust letting Great Orme for £1 a year to a farmer who would graze it with sheep in the traditional way, as this suppresses the coarse grasses and allows the finer ones and wild flowers to have enough light to grow and set seed, which encourages insects including rare butterflies, which encourages wildlife including rare birds .....  Also reading Rosamond Young's The Secret Life of Cows which points out that cows grazing traditional meadows will have a much more varied diet that those on rye-grass-and-white-clover mix, with the opportunity to get two elements in their diet which are only available from grass that's set seed.

[Tim W]

I was reading recently how people manage their flocks of sheep in my native Poland.
First they spend more than six months a year locked in the sheds. Then around 20th of April they are transported to the mountains. As most Farmers in Poland are rather smallholders, they (sheep owners) combine their small flocks and give them in care of the shepherds for the summer. One shepherd is responsible for around 100 sheep. They milk them by hand 3 times a day initially and then twice in August and September. From milk they make fantastic smoked cheese. Shepherds take the flock to mountain forests and graze them in the meadows. They always walk with several guardian dogs (Tatra sheepdogs) and make a lot of noise around the forest edge as they are wolves and bears in the area! Sheep are penned up for the night every single evening. Imagine if you had to do that in Wales Or anywhere else in the UK!

My question is could you use combination of permanent and electric fences + dogs + hedgrows (unknown in poland) to manage sheep with less labour and not feeding wolves?

I was looking at farms for sale in that area beautiful climate. 500mm of rain a year (less than English midlands). Warm summers with low air humidity (I.e. much less foot problems and flystrike). Average temperature in winter is -5 (mountains after all). Climate there is so nice that you can grown Apples, pears and even peaches at least to 450m above sea level.

When i worked in Poland (early 90's) there were few sheep ---on the flat lands there were small flocks of 6 or 7 ewes collared to their lambs grazing the roadside ---in the Tatras i came across milking flocks producing cheese etc
I met shepherded flocks in Bosnia that were similar to the system you describe , 100+ ewes in a mob on the hills for the summer . They had 2 or 3 protecting dogs with them (against european bear) that were terrifying to encounter  ---the shepherd seemed to visit the flock sporadically , maybe every other day , but the dogs kept the animals together and safe (not sure if the shepherd would have visited more often if there wasn't a war on?)