Grass into food: NSA backs Love Lamb Week as British sheep farming makes its case

National Sheep Association (NSA) is marking Love Lamb Week 2026, running from 1st - 7th September, by setting out what British sheep farmers do and how the association is backing them through one of the hardest summer seasons in years.

National Sheep Association (NSA) is again proudly supporting Love Lamb Week, the UK-wide campaign that celebrates British lamb and the farmers who produce it. Now in its eleventh year, the 2026 campaign runs under the theme Make it Lamb, focusing on the people and the process behind the meat as well as the meals it makes.

NSA has been involved since the campaign began in 2015, alongside AHDB, QMS Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales, the Livestock and Meat Commission, NFU, NFU Scotland, Ulster Farmers' Union and Red Tractor.

The land argument
The case for British lamb starts with the ground it is raised on. Nearly half of the UK's agricultural land is classified as upland, nutrient-poor soils, steep slopes and a harsh climate that rule out arable crops and leave grassland livestock as the practical option. In Scotland, 55% of agricultural land is given over to upland sheep farming or mixed sheep and beef.

A sheep on a Welsh hillside or a Cumbrian fell converts grass that no human can digest into protein, on ground that would otherwise produce nothing for the table. It adds to the national food supply without competing for land that could grow wheat, oats or beans. Very few foods can make that claim.

Well-managed grazing does more than produce food. NatureScot notes that grazing creates patches of short vegetation that form good breeding sites for waders such as lapwing, redshank and golden plover, and areas of tall herbs favoured by species like curlew. Undergrazing carries risks of its own, and the loss of grazing livestock from some sites is now recognised as a threat to their biodiversity value.

On the plate, and on the back
Lamb is naturally rich in protein and contains seven vitamins and minerals that support good health, including niacin, vitamins B6 and B12, zinc, potassium, phosphorus and pantothenic acid.

Flavour comes from the same place the environmental argument does the grass. Salt marsh lamb carries the herbs and salt of the ground it grazed; Herdwick tastes of the fells. Few foods hold their geography so clearly. The cheaper cuts are also the most forgiving: shoulder, neck and shanks reward slow, low heat rather than skill.

Wool is the half of the animal the conversation usually forgets. From the twelfth century to the eighteenth, it was the main reason to keep sheep at all, and the Speaker of the House of Lords still sits on a woolsack. British Wool reports a significant turnaround in the wool market, with prices rising sharply throughout 2026 to reach their highest level in a decade. The organisation has indicated that producers could receive around £1 per kilogram for the 2026 clip, signalling a positive shift for farmers. 

Phil Stocker MBE, NSA Chief Executive says: “Ask which foods make the best use of Britain and lamb should be near the top of the answer. Nearly half our farmland grows no crop at all, and sheep turn that grass into food while keeping habitats that depend on grazing alive. Love Lamb Week is a chance to say that plainly, and to put the farmers doing it in front of the people who buy the result.”