Throughout the 1980s the United Kingdom (UK) flock has expanded from 14 million to just over 20 million ewes and ewe lambs. This expansion has gone side by side with increased exports, particularly to France, and reduced New Zealand supplies. The main factor encouraging flock expansion has been European Community (EC) support and the guarantee created by the variable premium system adopted in the UK. As a result of the 'variable premium' payment system, supplies of lamb have increased during the first 3 months of the year but there is still a shortage of home produced lamb in the period April to June. Exports take up about 24% of the lamb crop.

There are 60 pure breeds of sheep in the UK and this number is actually increasing. The hill breeds are the most numerous. The national flock is dominated by halfbreds of which Mule types form 23% of the total. The Suffolk is the most numerous terminal sire but the number of Suffolk cross females has also increased substantially. Over 59% of the UK flock draws some form of hill subsidy.

Gross margin figures during the 1980s have been reasonable but in 1988 EC support and hill subsidies accounted for 30% of income in hill environments and 24% of income in lowland situations. In addition the ‘variable premium’ system underpinned the prices paid for store lambs. Changes in the EC sheepmeat regime are currently creating some uncertainty but prospects into the next century seem quite hopeful. The producer of store lambs will be vulnerable to an extent but there seems scope for continued modest expansion of the national flock through the 1990s.