BFA 2018 winner, Rhidian Glyn: 'I always wanted to farm but I never thought it was achievable to start with'

Against the odds and with determination, new entrant Rhidian Glyn has built what started as a 15-ewe flock on 2.8 hectares (seven acres) in 2008, to taking on a 10-year tenancy on a 214ha (530-acre) hill farm at Talywern, near Machynlleth.

Rhidian and his wife Elen secured Rhiwgriafol Farm in 2014, which, rising to 1,600ft at its highest point, is made up of 93ha (230 acres) of improved grassland, plus 117ha (290 acres) of unimproved rough grazing and 4ha (10 acres) of woodland.

An additional 65ha (160 acres) is also rented five miles away, used to graze most of the sheep and for making hay and silage.

The farm currently runs 900 improved Welsh ewes and 250 replacement ewe lambs, alongside about 200 dairy heifers, which are contract-reared each year.

Although he was not brought up on a farm, Rhidian’s ambition to get into agriculture began at an early age.

He says: “My grandparents farmed about 10 miles away from where I grew up, which is where my interest in farming started. But my parents were both teachers, so there was never the option of a family farm business to go into.”

After graduating from Aberystwyth University with a degree in agriculture and countryside management in 2008, he began renting land and bought his first 15 Welsh mountain ewes.

He says: “I would rent any block of grazing I could at that time, slowly building up ewe numbers until 2011, when I took on a larger block of 40ha and upped ewe numbers to 300 in two years.”

Self-motivation

As testament to his hard-working nature, Rhidian worked full-time off the farm in animal feed sales to fund his growing flock, farming when time allowed in the evenings and at weekends.

It was during this process which put him in touch with Rhiwgriafol initially, after buying a number of ewe lambs from the farm manager there at the time.

The tenancy was initially advertised locally in 2014 and, with the landlord keen to see it farmed as an entity in itself, and with support of the contact he had made there, he began the application process.

Rhidian says: “We knew a tenancy was the next step we wanted, so after putting together a business plan, we asked for reference letters from everyone we could think of, from our bank manager and current landlords to auctioneers, to get as many reliable character references as we could.”

After taking on the tenancy, Rhidian sold 200 of his existing ewes and bought the flock of 800 Tregaron type Welsh Mountain ewes which were on-farm.

Together with the 100 he had previously purchased from the farm, this made up the flock of 900 breeding ewes he currently runs.

The group is split with 300 going to a pure Welsh Mountain ram to produce about 250 replacement ewe lambs each year and some ram lambs for breeding, with the remaining 600 going to an Aberfield to produce breeding ewe lambs to sell.

Ram lambs from both groups are finished and will mainly be sold via the Tesco cost of production contract, which Rhidian joined recently after been attracted by its payment structure, which he says will allow him to budget more efficiently.