Over the past 100 years the farm has been an arable and dairy enterprise, although we ceased dairy farming in 2000. In 2014, we decided we’d had enough of arable farming and wanted to become more environmentally friendly and go back into livestock. We wanted these to be traditional/native breeds only, so in 2017 purchased 20 Beef Shorthorn cows and a bull, and 30 Llanwenog ewes and a ram as the start up.
Almost all our cows are now home-bred, with more coming into the herd each year. Our first bull, Feel the Force (named elsewhere!), has gone to pastures greener; and our home-bred bull – Ludovic (known as Ludo) has now been sold. We now have Samson who we bought in October 2023. His first lot of calves were born in August 2024 and he is producing some really good strong offspring.
Our flock of Llanwenogs increases each year by the addition of home-bred ewe lambs. Lambing takes place in March/April – some will be added to the flock, some will be sold as live lambs to be added to other flocks, and the rest will be available to buy in our lamb boxes later in the year. In 2019, only our second year, our ewe lambs won 3rd prize in the Llanwenog Society lamb competition, against strong competition from over 80 other entrants including many of the top native Welsh breeders. In 2022 our ewe lambs won 1st prize and our flock won 3rd prize in the Llanwenog Society competition. Our first ram Ryhdian sadly went to pastures greener at the start of 2024; we now have 2 rams – Dylan, and our latest addition Jimmy who we bought in 2024.
As we also wanted the farm to be run as organically as possible, in 2015 the arable fields were replanted with various species of grass to provide the cattle and sheep with the best fodder; some herbal grazing leys, some species-rich parkland leys, and some long-term hay leys. Our animals are reared on our own grass, silage and hay. The cattle spend around 8 months grazing outside, only coming inside when the land becomes too wet. The sheep are outside all year except for lambing time. The straw for bedding comes from an adjacent farm.
The farm is in the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, we are Red Tractor Assured, and we are registered in the High Health herd scheme. We aim to be carbon neutral as soon as possible.