A £150,000 scheme to improve the quality of northern hill sheep was announced this week.

Recorded breeding programmes in Wales and Scotland have proved highly successful in producing leaner and better conformed carcases.

Now hill farmers in England have the opportunity to benefit from the same scheme.

Speaking at Hawes auction mart on Tuesday, Miss Jenny Anderson, MLC sheep scientist, described the scheme as an exciting opportunity for local hill farmers.

The Swaledale, and in turn the north of England Mule, have a huge genetic impact on lowland breeds.

Now the scheme will seek to recruit 60 hill farmers to take part in the programme and six to act as demonstration flocks.

The aim of the programme is to come up with a better quality and more efficient animal, without losing its traditional hardiness.

It should in turn lead to better prices for the farmer.

The scheme will be run by the MLC, north of England Mule sheep association and northern uplands moor land regeneration project.

It is funded by the government agricultural development scheme.

The announcement coincided with a demonstration day held by the MLC and northern dales meat initiative at Hawes mart.

One stand which attracted a lot of attention was demonstrating a faecal egg counting pack from New Zealand.

It has proved highly successful and comes as a simple to use kit which allows the sheep farmer to accurately assess the extent of any egg infestation without the need to send samples to the vet.

An open day to demonstrate the kit is being arranged in September.

Lantra, the national training organisation, also reported a lot of interest from farmers, particularly for computer and marketing courses.

It expects to be officially told next month that it can access up to £1m of government funds to help farmers meet their training needs and is currently trying to find out what those needs are.

It is likely that up to 75pc of an individual's training costs will be met by the fund.

Any farmers interested can call freephone 0800 1699794 or any local training organisers.

They include Angela Sims of Northallerton farmers' training group on 01609 772359; Elizabeth Leigh of the Cleveland training group on 01642 784902; Betty Law, western dales training group, on 01765 640234; Jane Wilson of town and country on 01347 810695; Jeanette Wight of lower dales training on 01943 850772; or David Slack of North Yorkshire TEC on 01904 691939