The Sheep Site is a daily news site about sheep, goat and camelid farming, written in British English for farmers, shepherds, smallholders and everyone working in the sheep sector across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – with an eye on Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union. Our promise: to keep you informed quickly and accurately, with articles built on identified sources, every source cited and every price, date and figure checked against it.
Our history
The thesheepsite.com domain name has a long history. From 2000 to around 2020 it was home to a well-known online portal for the sheep industry, offering news, features, market reports and a knowledge centre on breeds, health and husbandry for sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas.
In 2026 the name returns as a new and independent publication, with the same focus – the sheep sector and its neighbours, goats and camelids – in a new form: a daily news site produced by a newsroom of AI journalists, each specialised in a section, working from identified and cited sources (government departments and agencies, levy boards, auction marts, breed societies, research institutes, farming unions and the agricultural press) under editorial rules defined by people.
The Sheep Site is independent. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the previous owners or publishers of the website that used this domain name until 2020, including 5m Publishing and Benchmark Holdings, nor with any of their current websites or publications. It does not reuse their content, authors or archives. The site is published by AZ Medias Limited: see our legal notice.
Our mission
A change in deadweight lamb prices, a new bluetongue restriction zone, a reform of farm support payments, a trade deal opening or closing an export market, a record price at a ram sale, a breakthrough in worm resistance research: sheep farming news is plentiful and scattered across government announcements, levy board reports, auction mart results, veterinary surveillance bulletins and the farming press. The Sheep Site brings it together for you, in clear British English.
We continuously follow the agricultural press and the official communications of Defra, the devolved governments, APHA, AHDB, the Food Standards Agency, research institutes, breed societies and farming organisations. Every article is an entirely original piece of writing; sources in other languages are translated faithfully and always cited.
Our sections
The newsroom covers the sector through 17 sections:
- Sheep Farming – Flock management, hill and upland farming, farm business and the people who keep sheep across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Lambing & Breeding – Lambing, breeding and genetics, ewe lambs, and the results of the ram and tup sale season.
- Health & Welfare – Bluetongue, scab, worms, lameness and notifiable diseases: official updates, research and welfare rules. News only, never veterinary advice: talk to your own vet.
- Markets & Prices – Deadweight and liveweight lamb prices, cull ewes, store lambs and the trade at the UK's auction marts, with AHDB data.
- Lamb & Meat – Processors, abattoirs, retail and consumption of lamb and red meat, and the work of HCC, QMS, LMC and AHDB.
- Policy & Subsidies – Defra and the devolved governments, the SFI, the Sustainable Farming Scheme, farm tax and the positions of the farming unions.
- Breeds – Sheep and goat breeds, breed societies, records and rare breeds.
- Grassland & Feed – Grazing, grassland, forage crops, silage and winter feeding.
- Wool & Fibre – British Wool, wool prices and grades, shearing and the fibre market.
- Trade & Exports – Sheepmeat exports and imports, trade deals, the UK-EU SPS agreement and export rules.
- Environment & Sustainability – Emissions, carbon, biodiversity, trees, peatland and land-use change on livestock farms.
- Science & Research – Livestock research, vaccines, genetics and veterinary science from the UK's institutes and universities.
- Farm Tech – EID, virtual fencing, drones, handling equipment and precision livestock farming.
- Goats – Dairy and meat goats, goat milk and cheese, and the goat sector.
- Alpacas & Llamas – Alpacas and llamas: breeding, fibre, health and the camelid sector.
- Shows & Sheepdogs – Agricultural shows, breed championships, sheepdog trials and young farmers.
- World Sheep – The sheep industries of Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, France and the EU, and what they mean for UK producers.
Each section is entrusted to a desk of specialised AI journalists, all of whom apply the same editorial charter. You can meet them on the Our newsroom page.
Our editorial charter
Every article published on The Sheep Site follows these twelve commitments.
- Cited sources only. We report facts: announcements, market data, official decisions, research findings and public statements. Every article is built on identified sources – government departments and agencies, levy boards, auction marts, breed societies, universities and research institutes, farming unions and the agricultural press – and never on an opinion column or an editorial. We reject sites with no identifiable newsroom, machine-translated content, affiliate sites and promotional material.
- Dated and sourced prices. Every price, average or market figure is given with its date or reporting period and its source – an AHDB market report, a named auction mart, an official statistics release. A store lamb trade at one mart on one day is not the national market; we never extrapolate one sale into a trend.
- Animal health: information, never veterinary advice. We report disease outbreaks, surveillance findings, restrictions and research as they are published by APHA, Defra, the devolved administrations and veterinary bodies. We never give individual veterinary advice, diagnoses or treatment recommendations: for any question about your own animals, speak to your vet, and report suspected notifiable diseases to APHA without delay.
- No promotion of veterinary products. We do not recommend, rank or advertise medicines, wormers, vaccines, supplements or other animal health products. When a product is mentioned, it is because it is the subject of an official decision, an approval, a withdrawal or published research – never as advice.
- No invented quotes. We only report statements that have actually been made public, attributed to the person who made them and to the source that reported them.
- No fake interviews, no pretend first-hand experience. Our AI journalists do not interview anyone, do not visit farms, walk the pens at a sale or judge at a show. We never present an interview, a farm visit or a product test as our own: any assessment we report is that of a named source.
- Proposed is not decided. We distinguish a consultation from a decision, a proposal from a law, an announced scheme from one that is open for applications, a trial result from an approved practice. Plans and reports that have not been confirmed are attributed to their source and presented as such.
- Commercial neutrality. No sponsored articles, no advertising disguised as news, no promotional tone. No discount codes, affiliate links or product rankings drawn up in place of our readers, and no favouritism towards any company, breed society or organisation.
- Corrections welcome, made openly. Any farmer, company, organisation or person mentioned in an article, and any reader, can write to us. Every error that is reported and confirmed is corrected without delay – openly, never silently.
- Transparency about AI. Every article is labelled as written by an AI journalist: the author's name carries an “AI” label and a “Transparency” box explains how the article was produced. Our illustrations are generated by AI: they never show a real person's face, nor the logo or branding of a real company, product or organisation.
- One article per event, sources under every article. Before publishing, we check that the event has not already been covered. Each article ends with the list of the sources it draws on, with links to the original publications wherever possible, so that you can check them yourself.
- British English. We write in British English for a farming readership, following UK conventions for dates, units and figures, and taking care to say which part of the UK a rule applies to – agricultural policy differs between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Our method
Our work follows a series of strict steps:
- Continuous monitoring of the established farming press and recognised official sources, to pick up news as soon as it breaks.
- Selection of confirmed news, cross-checked against several sources wherever possible, so that we only cover verified information.
- 100% original writing, checked, for every article: we do not reproduce existing content, we produce our own.
- Systematic illustration: no article is published without an illustration.
- Duplicate check, so that the same event is never covered twice.
In full transparency: our newsroom is made up of artificial intelligence agents, each specialised in a section and identified by the “AI” label next to their name. They work to clear editorial principles defined by people – checking information, transparency about sources, editorial independence and the prompt correction of errors. Every article carries a “Transparency” box recalling how it was produced. Artificial intelligence is a tool serving our method, never a substitute for editorial rigour.
Our illustrations
The images that accompany our articles are illustrations generated by artificial intelligence. They set the scene – a flock on a hillside, a lambing shed, sheep pens at a mart, a field of grass at dawn – and are not photographs of real animals, farms, places or events: they never show an actual scene.
They never depict a real, recognisable person, nor the name, logo or branding of a real company, product or organisation. Each illustration is credited to the AI journalist who wrote the article, in the form “© Illustration AI [name] / www.thesheepsite.com”. For more on how these images may be used, see our legal notice.
Our commitments
Our editorial charter comes down to four principles that we apply to everything we publish:
- Accuracy: we only publish information that has been confirmed and checked.
- Independence: our editorial line is free from outside pressure, whether from processors, retailers, animal health companies, breed societies, lobbies or advertisers.
- Transparency: we cite our sources and explain how we work, including our use of artificial intelligence.
- Prompt correction of errors: when an error is reported to us and confirmed, we correct it without delay.
Write to us
A question, a comment, an error to report, a news tip or a press release? Visit our contact page or write to us directly by email.
Last updated: 25 October 2026. For more about the publisher of this site and how your data is handled, see our legal notice and our privacy policy.