Current News & Projects
© N. Fell
Although we are a small team, we service a wide range of projects and are constantly revising and updating our activity. Many of these are delivered in partnership with farmers, landowners and a range of agencies working on Dartmoor. A core focus is business resilience and as well as ongoing farm support. There are too many to cover in detail but this page highlights some of the initiatives we are currently delivering or involved with.
Uptick Project
Following on from our 2024 Healthy Livestock, Healthy Commons project, working with commoners on Holne and Harford & Ugborough commons, The Dartmoor Hill Farm Project has been working on developing a larger scale project investigating
Uptick is a multi-agency collaboration between several partners including Dartmoor Hill Farm Project, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Animal and Plant Health Authority (APHA), Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and the Moredun Research Institute (MRI).
This project is focussed on Ticks and Tick-Borne Disease, using a novel ‘one health’ approach. This links Vegetation, wildlife, livestock and human health to better understand how they are interconnected, the prevalence of the diseases and possible management systems that can be used.
This project has several streams of work including:
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Human Blood testing to understand the prevalence of Tick Disease in those who live and work on the moor (UKHSA)
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Collecting and testing Ticks on the moor (UKHSA & APHA)
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Testing Deer for Tick Borne Disease (UKHSA)
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Testing Sheep and Cattle to understand the prevalence of the disease (DHFP & APHA)
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Understand the social and economic impacts of Tick-Borne Disease (UKCEH)
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Funding the first stage of the Louping Ill Vaccine development (MRI)
So far in 2026 we have:
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run a stakeholder workshop discussing the impact of Tick-Borne Disease on management of stock and the commons.
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Run 4 human blood sampling events sampling over 520 participants
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Blood tested 500 sheep and cattle
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Collected ticks in locations across the moor
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Taken a group of farmers to visit the Moredun Research Institute and Scottish moors to understand the management systems in place
Currently UHKSA, APHA and MRI are working on testing the 1,500 blood samples collected from humans and animals across the moor. These will be tested for a variety of human and animal diseases.
We expect results of animal bloods in May and human bloods in summer 2026.
Dung Chemical Analysis
We are currently working on a small scale project understanding the impacts of ectoparasite (acaricides) and endoparasite (wormers) on dung beetles.
This is building on the research from our 2023-24 work on assessing dung beetle populations both on in-bye and on commons. As part of the 2024 work we collected dung samples from animals at 4,8 and 12 weeks after treatment and analysed for ectoparasite treatments. We are now working on analysing the same samples for endoparasite treatments in order to help better understand how long residual treatments may last in dung. We hope this will help improve knowledge on the effects of animal treatments on beneficial invertebrates and inform the creation of a commons wide approach to treatments to create a plan to mitigate effects on non-target species.
Moorland Assessment App
Working in partnership with Harford and Ugborough Commons Association we have been developing a new App to monitor habitat condition. This was based on conversations linked to the SFI option MOR1 and concerns over the value and consistency of data collation. The new App. starts with soil identity and then moves to habitat type before ascribing a condition score. Designed with a geologist, ecologist and grazier input the group is now piloting version 1 with a view to a finalised format later in 2026
DFA - Farm to Fork
Education & Environment
Dartmoor Farmers Association (DFA) have been running a programme of work funded by the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme, with two main strands of work: education and environment. These complement each other via a pilot approach working with a small number of their overall membership (over 100), who work to established criteria and aspirations that reflect premium quality beef and lamb produced in hand with environmental actions and using traditional farming methods. Through working in partnership with Shallowford Farm Trust and Dartmoor Hill Farm Project, this programme ‘Making Connections: Food on your Fork: Nature on the Farm’ aimed to help illustrate the link between food eaten at school or at home with farming and conservation on Dartmoor by promoting, organising and delivering a total of 35 farm visits involving 11 different farms and over 1,000 children
DFA meat is served at many schools across Devon through Goosemoor Ltd ( Educatering); a company that provides over 80 schools in Devon with good wholesome, predominantly locally, sourced food. But how many children really know where their food comes from? How many have visited a farm and crucially a farm on Dartmoor? How many understand how nature friendly farming supports conservation and contributes to mitigating against climate change? Farm visits enabled young people to learn where their food comes from, how farming can contribute to conservation of habitats, species, and cultural heritage and how actions on the farm can contribute to mitigating against climate change. Delivery aligned with themes from the national curriculum at appropriate key stage levels, directly benefiting schools adding value to their time spent outside the classroom, supported by building a longer-term connection with the schools through educational packs for teachers and other interpretation materials.
In parallel, the project completed environmental assessments on 10 farms to gather and collate relevant information to help illustrate the breadth of environmental features which DFA represent. These provide supplementary information to the educational work, providing tailored, fact-based resources about the farms as part of interpretation and communications using positive messages. The assessments sought to align with Agri-Environment schemes so that future opportunities are identified for the Farm Businesses individually, as well as to illustrate the gains from upscaling and collaboration.
Developed with the farmers, the long term aspiration would be to expand the format to other DFA members to fully reflect the scale of impact and opportunity which they represent as a group, which is currently being investigated for potential.
The final report is available to download here as a pdf.
THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW ON THE MANAGEMENT OF DARTMOOR’S PROTECTED SITES AND THE DARTMOOR LAND USE MANAGEMENT GROUP
For context:
The Independent Review was commissioned by Defra ministers to make recommendations on the most effective grazing and management regime(s) that would deliver improvements on the Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) across Dartmoor. The panel led by David Fursdon, met with a wide range of representatives of the farming and communing community on Dartmoor in 2023.
Their report with recommendations was issued to Mark Spencer, the Minister for Food Farming and Fisheries, and made publicly available on 13th December 2023. The full report can be accessed here;
The official Ministerial response released in April 2024 is available here; Government response to the Independent review of protected site management on Dartmoor: full report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Dartmoor Land Use Management Group (DLUMG) is an independently chaired advisory group created to implement the recommendations and create a land use framework, as well as identifying areas where more evidence gathering is required, and enabling the continuing delivery of environment, climate and biodiversity initiatives, projects and investments within the National Park.
See the relevant DLUMG website here; Dartmoor Land Use Management group
Collaboration
We support a number of farmer groups who are looking to collaborate in order to improve business resilience and to deliver better outcomes for the farm, local economy and the environment. This includes the Central Dartmoor Farm Cluster who we helped develop through a project linked to the Dartmoor Facilitation Fund. The initial focus was on the Marsh Fritillary butterfly but as the group developed knowledge and confidence, we explored the agricultural transition and emerging markets.
This led to a landscape vision and plan for the holdings who have formed a CIC to allow them to access new funding. We helped them to formulate a project for field trials on herbal leys and this work is now being funded and delivered in partnership with South West Water through their Upstream Thinking Project - and in 2024 also secured a Landscape Recovery project from Defra for a 2 year development stage.
Now you see it - now you don't!
As part of ongoing projects, we have been exploring the role that invisible fencing systems and GPS trackers can play in livestock grazing the common. Initially we engaged with ‘No Fence’ a Norwegian company though a free trial offer. Working with 5 cattle graziers and one sheep grazier (in-bye only) on different commons across Dartmoor we explored the practicalities for day-to-day stock management. This highlighted several challenges from price point and mobile phone coverage to battery power but in summary feedback from those who participated was very positive. Most graziers saw a significant saving in time and costs in locating stock on misty days (as part of ongoing projects) and most cattle remained in their identified lears. We are continuing to use collars as part ongoing projects and have provided feedback to Defra through their review of invisible GPS fence systems by their Animal and Welfare Committee. In addition to audible collars we have looked at GPS trackers in use on some herds and flocks with a role to play where mobile phone signal is good.