I’ve been
here most of my working life, for the past 17 years as a tenant and before that
helping the previous tenant. The farm is a thousand acres, from the face of
Tryfan, the watershed on Glyderau down the Gribin ridge, down to Clogwyn y Tarw
across the bottom of Cwm Idwal, down behind Hafod to the cattle grid then up
alongside the A5. It’s a varied landscape with good shelter.
What
have been the main changes?
The volume
of people. When I was 7 or 8 we would go to Llyn Idwal to swim and maybe see 20
people in their hob nailed boots with thick ropes. Our parents told us to stay
clear of the ‘mad climbers’ and we would run like hell if we saw a hiker. Now,
in a couple of hours, you are likely to see a few hundred. My main concern is dogs
chasing sheep when they should be on a lead.
This used to
be a mixed farm with milking cows, cattle and sheep but after the war it became
just sheep. When I took on the farm
there were 1200 and they had devastated the heather, bilberry and saplings with
woodlands dying. Tir Gofal was my saviour,
it gave me the breathing space to improve the animals and at the same time the
wildlife. Sheep numbers were cut 75%, Welsh Blacks reintroduced, plus goats and
Shetland ponies which do a great job grazing the rushes.
How
viable is the farm?
Without
support I would be bankrupt. To make money from selling organic meat to
supermarkets I would need £100 per lamb but last year I got £54 for my best and
just £30 for the lighter ones. Tir Gofal (now in its final year) pays me £20K a
year, for destocking and removing the sheep over the winter, and the European
Single Farm Payment is worth £12K.
But sending
sheep away for winter is expensive. I used to send them to a 2,000 acre organic
farm in Bridgnorth, they grew a mix of potatoes, barley, wheat and soft fruits
but today it’s all maize which goes into a biodigester to make electric. The feed-in
tariff underpins the wisdom of that farmer for the next 25 years. It’s as if it
doesn’t matter what we’re going to eat so long as the house is warm and the car
is running.
To balance
the books I need to be inventive and for many years we have provided farmhouse
accommodation with our own produce served for breakfast and evening meal. My
big venture at the moment is Tryfan Organics, a catering van parked near the
Ogwen centre, from which I sell hot food: lobscaws, Welsh Black burgers, minted
mountain lamb burgers, sausages and bacon from our own pigs. In the future
maybe Water Buffalo burgers too – there’s a boggy patch of ground they could
sensibly convert into tasty meat.
When people
discover the taste they want more so we keep note of names and phone numbers
and come the autumn we will phone them to take orders for boxed lamb and beef.
I do the butchery here myself after the lamb has hung for a week and the beef
for a month. I lead my cattle into the abattoir, talking to them, to minimise
the stress – I don’t like the idea of a hired hand using a stick to control a
despairing animal towards its death. It needs to be as humane as possible for
everyone’s sake.
Does
the subsidy produce a good result?
No green
desert here. Trees are regenerating; they don’t have to be fenced off if there’s
plenty of grass, only hungry sheep will resort to chewing off the bark and the
leaves. Fewer sheep plus wintering away means there is less pressure on trees.
Cattle are my mobile muck spreaders. Each deposit of manure brings in worms,
beetles and other insects which in turn bring in the birds. 64 different
species here including 4 or 5 on the RSPB’s red list. This is the stronghold
for the extremely rare Twite. It’s great to think that a shepherd, with advice,
is helping save this species. The streams are in good condition with otters and
water vole and with salmon and sea trout spawning up the end of Ogwen.
What
are your next plans?
Glastir is
the new agri-environment scheme which would like to encourage more cattle back
in the uplands. Keeping cattle here has been difficult, with 100” rainfall I am
constantly on my guard to prevent nutrient runoff into the waters. I would like
to overwinter my cattle here indoors but I need to get permission to change the
yard at the bottom to include a covered area with a slurry store so that it can
be kept for use in the spring when the soil warms and can absorb the nitrogen. If I get permission I then need to speak to
the bank manager about a loan – I’m 60 now but it’s worth it because I hope to
be farming here well into my 80s.
What
will it be like here in 50 years time?
I’d like to see
a Welsh family run farm which will probably be more specialised but still based
on a mix of mountain lamb and Welsh blacks. Diversification will continue, it’s
nothing new. Visitors used to come by train and ride their bikes up from Bangor
station. Children would be moved into the barn, a bit like a dormitory, with
metal beds and an orange box for storage. Meanwhile best crockery would be
brought out for the visiting family that would live the life of a Welsh farm
for the week. By the time they returned to Birkenhead or Oldham they would know
so much about our culture and ways of life. I’m still sending Christmas cards
to people we met like that.
Governments
urge diversification but we do it by necessity. What we need is a clear steer;
are we food producers or guardians of the countryside? There are so many little
projects but no clear direction. At the moment Britain produces just 52%* of
its food.
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