Farming remains the main industry in the Yorkshire Dales but ensuring the farms can adapt to agricultural reform, following the removal of the Basic Payment Scheme and the transition to the delivery of public goods, is paramount. Upland farms are known for their environmental benefits, species rich hay meadows, pastures used by breeding waders including curlew, lapwing, oystercatchers, and snipe, on the higher ground; black grouse and merlin to name but a few. These areas are also important forage grounds for sheep and managed in rotation to allow the optimal conditions for wildlife to thrive. Sheep in the uplands get bad press and farmers get accused of overgrazing. Yet, as a farmer, it is very difficult to understand how we would manage this landscape sustainably without Swaledale sheep -- a native breed that has grazed these landscapes for hundreds of years. Following conversations with farmers in Swaledale and Wensleydale it has been noted that little has been done to look at the natural diet of sheep within the upland landscape. They are thought to play an important role in grassland management, but very few studies have ever been conducted looking at quantifying whether this diet is having an impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Through this project we seek to address this. By using experts from the research, technology, and food sector we hope to engage with upland farmers, quantify an understanding of forage diet and sheep emissions, and explore routes to market. The project outputs will include: 1) Determine whether locally adapted breeds have inherently different methane emissions intensity compared to breeds developed in other environments, and to what extent this adaptation is related to forage type. 2) Identify potential mitigation strategies that could have a positive benefit on the sectors carbon footprint. 3) Identify links needed with conservation/ecological players to understand the wider benefit of upland sheep systems. 4) Farmer open day to showcase the benefits of PAC testing for sheep GHG emissions and support knowledge exchange.

**Langrish Farmers**, passionate about improving the quality and value of wool, will work with key industry players National Sheep Association, British Wool, Wool Testing Authority Europe (WTAE) and Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL), to benchmark wool quality at an individual sheep level in an English Romney sheep flock. An attention to wool quality in terms of fibre diameter will look to increase returns to commercial farmers. By validating an on-farm wool testing device and building guidelines on improving wool quality through benchmarking, selection and breeding, the **Fabulous Fibre** project aims to help Langrish Farmers demonstrate the ability to **progress towards net zero** by using wool as a natural renewable fibre that is an alternative to synthetics**, increasing business resilience, improving productivity** and potentially **diversifying** sheep farming back to its multifunctional nature. This would change current farmer attitude towards wool as a waste product. For the industry, the product aims to make the UK wool sector more **resilient** and reduce reliance on imports in the wool industry. Wool quality is measured by testing the wool fibre to a micron value. The lower the micron value the higher the quality and the greater the return value. There is currently no on-farm technology capable of testing individual fleeces with real-time results. This project will work with one large Romney flock, to validate a handheld, portable device allowing greater control of fleeces sent for testing (and validation) through WTAE. Romney sheep have been selected due to their average micron levels hovering around the premium threshold. Measurements taken from the flock will be used to identify high-quality wool animals at an individual level and enable selection and breeding programmes for subsequent years, with wool quality a key focus. In addition, the lambs born in 2024 from the wool quality assessed ewes will have their fleeces tested, giving an indication of the heritability of wool quality. It will also enable Langrish Farmers to select breeding replacements both on conformation, carcase traits and wool quality for subsequent breeding seasons, identifying and limiting any trade-offs between traits. The project will also improve the understanding and value of wool testing on farm and demonstrate easy steps to improve wool values across the sector. In addition, it will provide practical lessons and opportunities for any sheep farm to improve wool quality and value.

Our aim is to breed sheep with a naturally low carbon footprint to help English sheep farmers make a positive contribution to the journey towards Net Zero for UK agriculture. We are an alliance of forward-thinking sheep farmers and breeders who apply genetic science to the breeding of our sheep so that they can make the best, most efficient use of grass and forage to produce sustainable and healthy lamb of high nutritive value. Making use of grasslands by way of sheep grazing also helps sequester carbon into the soil. We collectively believe we can improve the sustainability of our sheep further by using genetic science and breeding to naturally reduce the amount of methane, which is a natural by-product of their forage digestion process, and therefore reduce the carbon footprint of sheep farming. This project will allow us to collect and build the necessary data, and develop the tools required to genetically reduce the methane emissions, and in turn, carbon footprint of sheep; and demonstrate the impact of using low-carbon sheep may have on whole farm carbon footprints. To achieve this, we will develop on-farm protocols to measure or predict methane emissions of sheep, alongside health, production and efficiency traits at the individual animal level, through using new innovative tools and technologies. We will investigate biological relationships between the genetic potential of sheep to emit lower levels of methane with rumen size and microbiota and with ewe productivity, efficiency and health, as we want to avoid any unintended changes in sheep physiology, health or welfare. To widen the impact of the project beyond our own flocks, we intend to carry out a wide-reaching programme of communication with other sheep breeders and farmers throughout England, in collaboration with supply chain partners and wider industry bodies. The integrated knowledge exchange programme will identify the most effective ways of communicating the outputs and implications of the project's work to other farmers to help educate and support them to make genetic changes in their flocks that will improve their productivity, sustainability, resilience and profitability.