A Common Interest in Rare Breeds

Rare Breeds Survival Trust Chief Executive Christopher Price celebrates people, places and their livestock

- Christopher Price

Throughout 2023, as we mark RBST's 50th anniversary we are celebrating the people and places which have long played such crucial roles in the survival of our native livestock and equine breeds. We are also planning for the decades to come, and working to help embed the knowledge, support, policy environment, and local infrastructure needed for our native breeds to thrive. The importance of working for our rare breeds' future while we celebrate the work of the past is demonstrated every day in their widespread presence on Common Land.

Commons cover large tracts of ecologically rich landscapes in England and Wales, and there are more than 1000 Common Grazings in Scotland. Much of this Common Land covers areas with low agricultural potential but which hold value for high conservation significance and natural beauty. Commoning - the land management practice in which a group of farmers and smallholders have 'commoners rights' to graze their animals on the common without fences or boundaries between them - supports the intricate balance of these landscapes, ecosystems, and communities, and native breeds have a key role to play.