Farm profile: Welsh farmer turns to technology across varied business

Across 566.5 hectares (1,400 acres), Llŷr runs an extensive, grass-fed system with his 500 Welsh mules and 1,000 Welsh ewes, on land that ranges in height from sea level to 1,400 feet.

In September in 2018, he introduced a new weighing system on-farm, with a view to increase the productivity of the herd by analysing the lambs weight and tracing it back to the mothers.

The use of the Prattley 3-way auto drafter works by sectioning off the lambs, categorising them as lambs that have either underperformed and lost weight, lambs that are below their target weight but have gained weight, and lambs that have hit the target weight, which Llŷr inputs in to the system first.

Although quite an expensive addition to the farm, Llŷr was helped through a Welsh Government grant and says that in the long run, the system will pay itself off because the more he puts in, the more he will get back.

“I was shocked at the weight lost due to lameness,” says Llŷr.

“I found that lambs could lose up to 100 grams a day and with this system, I can now look at treating individual lambs rather than a whole flock.”

It also provides him with the means to weave the under performing ewes out of the flock.

When the ewes have lambed, each lamb is recorded on the system and can be traced back to its mother.

Then, when weighing takes place, Llŷr can easily connect every lamb to the ewe.

“I can essentially marry the mothers and lambs together,” says Llŷr.

“But when I weigh the lambs and look at the ones that haven’t performed as well as I might have expected, I already have the recorded mother and can pull them out to sell them on.”

Selling to ABP, Dunbia and a little to the local market, Llŷr takes immense pride in Welsh lamb and wants to continue to provide top class meat to champion the product.

He says: “Welsh lamb is the best in the world.

“It has a really good story to tell and we need to protect it.”

Llŷr is also part of a group of farmers who supply an enterprise that turns fallen livestock into renewable energy.

When the ban on burying fallen livestock on-farm came in in 2006, he was among local farmers who set up their own incinerator using fossil fuels.

This led to them identifying a company in Staffordshire which renders the animals and produces electricity, which is, says Llŷr, a win, win situation.

But it is just another string to his bow that proves his can-do attitude is the way farmers must work to continually survive each challenge the industry faces.

“I would like to think I’m quite a progressive farmer,” says Llŷr.

“Each time we’re given a problem, I try to solve it.

“And with the sheep, when EID tagging was made comulsory by law I thought we’re not doing anything particular with them, let’s try and get as much infomation as we can and invest in the auto drafter.

“We can use that technology and by doing so, we can also get lambs that the market wants every time. And it doesn’t take that long to do.”

OSR

The farm also includes 100 acres of arable land, which produces rapeseed supplied to Welsh rape-seed oil producer, Blodyn Aur (Golden Flower).

Set up a decade ago by Llŷr and two farming friends, Blodyn Aur’s cold-pressed oil now sells in a variety of retailers, including Asda, Morrisons, and Sainsbury’s and uses a barcode technology that indicates to Llŷr how much is being sold.

“We can log on to a system from home that tells us what sells in which store and at what time,” says Llŷr.

“It used to be a case of soemone ringing us to order four more pallets for example but it is now up to us to re-stock the supermarket.”

Llŷr’s OSR enterprise is unique in the sense he is the only farmer in Wales to produce rapeseed oil.

And it is his forward thinking ways and openess to new methods of farming through the combination of technology and renewables that will see his business continue to grow.