A voice has been set up to benefit common right holders and sheep graziers on the North Yorkshire Moors.

The Federation of Yorkshire Commoners and Moorland Graziers already has about 90 members, says its chairman, county councillor Herbert Tindall, who is a Danby farmer and member of the National Park Authority.

The establishment of the federation comes at a time when there are growing fears for the future of the famous moorland sheep flocks in the park which has come into the spotlight with a £7,000 study being carried out by the park authority into the viability of hill farming.

He said: "Most of the problems are about making sheep farming pay.

"We are trying to set up various schemes to promote, such as the milky Swaledale lamb. We are also concerned about guidelines on vegetation on the moors and heather burning.

"The federation is providing common right holders and graziers a voice on the operation of common land for the first time.

"We have got to have commoners associations and to involve more people in getting the message over as to how the moorland works."

He said the objective is for the right holders - farmers and landowners who have historic rights as tenants or freeholders to graze sheep on the moors - to work with English Nature, the Government's rural conservation agency, and to press the sheep farmers' case both at Westminster and in the European Parliament.