Jim the only business that I know that can run year on year at a loss is a Labour government. Probably the EU as well, but as they have never allowed an audit of their books it is anybodies guess. But I know which way I would place a bet!
If grazing no longer occurred those open areas would soon be taken over by scrub and woodland. Whether serried ranks of conifers are the correct response to barren land is another discussion. They allow little light, little decay and do no favours to the soil. It is also true to say some many plantations created up to the sixties would probably not be allowed to day. Back then ecology was merely a word, now it is a profession.But trees are carbon sinks, but draining bogs to plant trees also releases copious quantities of carbon. Leaving the brash to decay also releases carbon. harvesting can also create problems. A plantation next to an adjacent salmon river had the felling halted because surface runoff, from heavy machinery tracks, was putting too higher silt/clay burden in the river during spawning.
In the not too distant past such a consideration would have been ignored. Difficult to dodge when the Environmental Agency is on the case, and a good thing they are. The picture is not as black as you paint.