Agriculture

Swinton Estate works with upwards of 50 farm tenants who farm various types of holdings on the Estate, from fully equipped farms to bare land holdings and annual grazing licences.  There is a mix of mixed arable and grassland farms and a dairy unit on the lower ground to upland livestock farms on the higher ground and moors. Many of the farm tenants have managed holdings on the Estate for generations and perform a key role in the management of the Estate’s 20,000 acres land holding.  As agriculture and farming practices have changed a number of the farm tenants have also diversified their holdings.

The most popular sheep breed is the Swaledale which copes well with the more challenging climate at high altitude. What makes the farms distinctive is the pattern of small fields enclosed with dry stone walls, which forms the backdrop for the traditional stone houses and stone field barns that make up the landscape of the famous Yorkshire Dales.

Masham is well known in the agricultural world as being the home to the prized Masham breed of sheep which have been bred on the hill farms in the North of England for over a century. They are produced by crossing a Teeswater ram onto either a Dalesbred or Swaledale ewe – both hardy hill breeds. The Masham sheep is popular for being hardy and its good mothering instincts, along with its long wool.