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Pembrokeshire Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Pembrokeshire Herald
Plea to lift agricultural occupancy condition rejected
A NEW co-operative formed between West Wales pig farmers and a meat supplier is allowing pork from herds born and reared within the region to be transported for processing just a short distance in a low-throughput abattoir – reducing stress on the animals, providing low food miles meat for consumers and improving producer margins. The eight Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire-based farmers were brought together by the Farming Connect Agrisgôp initiative after the idea was discussed by Fishguard meat supplier and butcher Martyn Lloyd and Agrisgôp leader Lilwen Joynson. Martyn had been a member of another Agrisgôp group where Lilwen had helped him to develop his idea for a new processing facility and later, at a Farming Connect mentoring meeting, the idea for the Red Dragon Porc Cyf co-operative was established. Martyn and his wife, Danielle, had been unable to source low food miles pork for their customers. 'We could get beef and lamb and we have our own poultry but what we were missing was pork, we did our best to find Welsh pork for customers but that pork came with a lot of food miles and that doesn't fit with our business ethos,'' Martyn explains. Developing an abattoir on their farm at Cilshafe presented a solution. 'We wanted to get some pork producers on board, to help them advance their businesses,'' says Martyn. 'There are a lot of small pig producers in west Wales and many were struggling to work out how best to get their meat to the market but with an existing customer base we could help. We looked to Agrisgôp to help to bring that to life.'' After the first Agrisgôp meeting, facilitated by Lilwen, the idea took shape. Agrisgôp is a fully-funded management development programme that encourages eligible farmers to get together to not only develop their businesses, but to personally gain confidence and skills through action learning. And this is what happened for the Red Dragon Porc Cyf members. Farmers had been receiving inconsistent prices for their pigs when they marketed as individual businesses and their ability to supply a butcher directly was constrained as meeting supply volume requirements was tricky. 'The farmers shared a mission and were guided on putting their ideas into action,'' Lilwen explains. Building trust and confidence was crucial to the process of forming a cooperative. 'Collaboration and open sharing are definitely key,'' says Lilwen. 'Differences of opinion and thinking had to be overcome and a set of rules and values adopted with individuals accepting that it had to work for the majority since they were no longer operating as individual businesses.'' For some it even meant changing breeding patterns and breed type to accommodate market demands. At the end of 2024, Red Dragon Porc Cyf had already marketed £43,000 worth of pork, including sausages which captured awards at last year's Royal Welsh Winter Fair. In April, the missing part of the local pork jigsaw slotted into position when the Lloyds started processing pork at their own Food Standards Agency-approved abattoir. Until then, co-operative members including Will Kerr had to transport their pigs further to be processed. 'We didn't have any control over prices, the margins were very small,'' Will admits. 'Martyn opening the abattoir in Fishguard has been the catalyst we needed.'' Will has six Welsh pig breeding sows, which he runs alongside suckler beef and sheep enterprises at his family's farm, Blaenawen, at Glanrhyd. He had long been frustrated at the perception of pork being, in his words 'the cheap cousin'' of beef and lamb. While it has become commonplace for butchers to display the full history of the beef and lamb they are selling, Will points out that this is rarely applied to pork because it is largely sourced wholesale or has been imported. 'We too are now in a position to tell the exciting story of our pork,'' says Will, who farms with his parents, Mark and Kip. He sees a major advantage in being part of a co-operative. 'As a group we are more powerful, it gives us many advantages, we are already getting a better price for our pigs. 'Without Agrisgôp we would never have come together so we are grateful to Martyn for initiating it with Farming Connect and to Lilwen for pulling us all together.'' Another member of the group, Ed Walker, also sees big value in collective marketing, that 'strength in numbers''. 'As eight producers we are on a par with commercial farmers as we can offer consistency of supply but we are still individual small producers too.'' The businessman-turned-farmer produces around 600 pigs a year on an outdoor system at 46-acre Model Farm near Tenby. His 22 breeding sows are a mixture of Large Whites crossed with a Welsh boar and Oxford Sandy and Blacks which he crosses to a Large White. Keeping pigs started as hobby, alongside running his own civil engineering business, but it is now more or less a full-time job, with a part-time helper too. Almost all his sales are through Red Dragon Porc Cyf although he is also licenced to sell meat from the farm as Tenby Woodland Pork. Before the abattoir was established at Cilshafe, he would need to make a 150-mile round trip to the facility at Maesteg. The next stage for the co-operative could be to establish a meat box scheme. The throughput of pigs through the Lloyds' abattoir, which also processes other livestock, will be small initially but that is projected to increase as sales gain momentum. The facility has so far has created four full-time jobs and more could follow. Picture caption: Collaborating on pork marketing: Pictured from the left are Tom Young, Nic Caine, Martyn Lloyd, Ed Walker, Will Kerr and Lilwen Joynson
Pembrokeshire Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Pembrokeshire Herald
New Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire farms join innovation network
A NEW co-operative formed between West Wales pig farmers and a meat supplier is allowing pork from herds born and reared within the region to be transported for processing just a short distance in a low-throughput abattoir – reducing stress on the animals, providing low food miles meat for consumers and improving producer margins. The eight Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire-based farmers were brought together by the Farming Connect Agrisgôp initiative after the idea was discussed by Fishguard meat supplier and butcher Martyn Lloyd and Agrisgôp leader Lilwen Joynson. Martyn had been a member of another Agrisgôp group where Lilwen had helped him to develop his idea for a new processing facility and later, at a Farming Connect mentoring meeting, the idea for the Red Dragon Porc Cyf co-operative was established. Martyn and his wife, Danielle, had been unable to source low food miles pork for their customers. 'We could get beef and lamb and we have our own poultry but what we were missing was pork, we did our best to find Welsh pork for customers but that pork came with a lot of food miles and that doesn't fit with our business ethos,'' Martyn explains. Developing an abattoir on their farm at Cilshafe presented a solution. 'We wanted to get some pork producers on board, to help them advance their businesses,'' says Martyn. 'There are a lot of small pig producers in west Wales and many were struggling to work out how best to get their meat to the market but with an existing customer base we could help. We looked to Agrisgôp to help to bring that to life.'' After the first Agrisgôp meeting, facilitated by Lilwen, the idea took shape. Agrisgôp is a fully-funded management development programme that encourages eligible farmers to get together to not only develop their businesses, but to personally gain confidence and skills through action learning. And this is what happened for the Red Dragon Porc Cyf members. Farmers had been receiving inconsistent prices for their pigs when they marketed as individual businesses and their ability to supply a butcher directly was constrained as meeting supply volume requirements was tricky. 'The farmers shared a mission and were guided on putting their ideas into action,'' Lilwen explains. Building trust and confidence was crucial to the process of forming a cooperative. 'Collaboration and open sharing are definitely key,'' says Lilwen. 'Differences of opinion and thinking had to be overcome and a set of rules and values adopted with individuals accepting that it had to work for the majority since they were no longer operating as individual businesses.'' For some it even meant changing breeding patterns and breed type to accommodate market demands. At the end of 2024, Red Dragon Porc Cyf had already marketed £43,000 worth of pork, including sausages which captured awards at last year's Royal Welsh Winter Fair. In April, the missing part of the local pork jigsaw slotted into position when the Lloyds started processing pork at their own Food Standards Agency-approved abattoir. Until then, co-operative members including Will Kerr had to transport their pigs further to be processed. 'We didn't have any control over prices, the margins were very small,'' Will admits. 'Martyn opening the abattoir in Fishguard has been the catalyst we needed.'' Will has six Welsh pig breeding sows, which he runs alongside suckler beef and sheep enterprises at his family's farm, Blaenawen, at Glanrhyd. He had long been frustrated at the perception of pork being, in his words 'the cheap cousin'' of beef and lamb. While it has become commonplace for butchers to display the full history of the beef and lamb they are selling, Will points out that this is rarely applied to pork because it is largely sourced wholesale or has been imported. 'We too are now in a position to tell the exciting story of our pork,'' says Will, who farms with his parents, Mark and Kip. He sees a major advantage in being part of a co-operative. 'As a group we are more powerful, it gives us many advantages, we are already getting a better price for our pigs. 'Without Agrisgôp we would never have come together so we are grateful to Martyn for initiating it with Farming Connect and to Lilwen for pulling us all together.'' Another member of the group, Ed Walker, also sees big value in collective marketing, that 'strength in numbers''. 'As eight producers we are on a par with commercial farmers as we can offer consistency of supply but we are still individual small producers too.'' The businessman-turned-farmer produces around 600 pigs a year on an outdoor system at 46-acre Model Farm near Tenby. His 22 breeding sows are a mixture of Large Whites crossed with a Welsh boar and Oxford Sandy and Blacks which he crosses to a Large White. Keeping pigs started as hobby, alongside running his own civil engineering business, but it is now more or less a full-time job, with a part-time helper too. Almost all his sales are through Red Dragon Porc Cyf although he is also licenced to sell meat from the farm as Tenby Woodland Pork. Before the abattoir was established at Cilshafe, he would need to make a 150-mile round trip to the facility at Maesteg. The next stage for the co-operative could be to establish a meat box scheme. The throughput of pigs through the Lloyds' abattoir, which also processes other livestock, will be small initially but that is projected to increase as sales gain momentum. The facility has so far has created four full-time jobs and more could follow. Picture caption: Collaborating on pork marketing: Pictured from the left are Tom Young, Nic Caine, Martyn Lloyd, Ed Walker, Will Kerr and Lilwen Joynson
Pembrokeshire Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Pembrokeshire Herald
Over 100 gather to oppose GreenGen pylons in growing ‘David vs Goliath' battle
A NEW co-operative formed between West Wales pig farmers and a meat supplier is allowing pork from herds born and reared within the region to be transported for processing just a short distance in a low-throughput abattoir – reducing stress on the animals, providing low food miles meat for consumers and improving producer margins. The eight Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire-based farmers were brought together by the Farming Connect Agrisgôp initiative after the idea was discussed by Fishguard meat supplier and butcher Martyn Lloyd and Agrisgôp leader Lilwen Joynson. Martyn had been a member of another Agrisgôp group where Lilwen had helped him to develop his idea for a new processing facility and later, at a Farming Connect mentoring meeting, the idea for the Red Dragon Porc Cyf co-operative was established. Martyn and his wife, Danielle, had been unable to source low food miles pork for their customers. 'We could get beef and lamb and we have our own poultry but what we were missing was pork, we did our best to find Welsh pork for customers but that pork came with a lot of food miles and that doesn't fit with our business ethos,'' Martyn explains. Developing an abattoir on their farm at Cilshafe presented a solution. 'We wanted to get some pork producers on board, to help them advance their businesses,'' says Martyn. 'There are a lot of small pig producers in west Wales and many were struggling to work out how best to get their meat to the market but with an existing customer base we could help. We looked to Agrisgôp to help to bring that to life.'' After the first Agrisgôp meeting, facilitated by Lilwen, the idea took shape. Agrisgôp is a fully-funded management development programme that encourages eligible farmers to get together to not only develop their businesses, but to personally gain confidence and skills through action learning. And this is what happened for the Red Dragon Porc Cyf members. Farmers had been receiving inconsistent prices for their pigs when they marketed as individual businesses and their ability to supply a butcher directly was constrained as meeting supply volume requirements was tricky. 'The farmers shared a mission and were guided on putting their ideas into action,'' Lilwen explains. Building trust and confidence was crucial to the process of forming a cooperative. 'Collaboration and open sharing are definitely key,'' says Lilwen. 'Differences of opinion and thinking had to be overcome and a set of rules and values adopted with individuals accepting that it had to work for the majority since they were no longer operating as individual businesses.'' For some it even meant changing breeding patterns and breed type to accommodate market demands. At the end of 2024, Red Dragon Porc Cyf had already marketed £43,000 worth of pork, including sausages which captured awards at last year's Royal Welsh Winter Fair. In April, the missing part of the local pork jigsaw slotted into position when the Lloyds started processing pork at their own Food Standards Agency-approved abattoir. Until then, co-operative members including Will Kerr had to transport their pigs further to be processed. 'We didn't have any control over prices, the margins were very small,'' Will admits. 'Martyn opening the abattoir in Fishguard has been the catalyst we needed.'' Will has six Welsh pig breeding sows, which he runs alongside suckler beef and sheep enterprises at his family's farm, Blaenawen, at Glanrhyd. He had long been frustrated at the perception of pork being, in his words 'the cheap cousin'' of beef and lamb. While it has become commonplace for butchers to display the full history of the beef and lamb they are selling, Will points out that this is rarely applied to pork because it is largely sourced wholesale or has been imported. 'We too are now in a position to tell the exciting story of our pork,'' says Will, who farms with his parents, Mark and Kip. He sees a major advantage in being part of a co-operative. 'As a group we are more powerful, it gives us many advantages, we are already getting a better price for our pigs. 'Without Agrisgôp we would never have come together so we are grateful to Martyn for initiating it with Farming Connect and to Lilwen for pulling us all together.'' Another member of the group, Ed Walker, also sees big value in collective marketing, that 'strength in numbers''. 'As eight producers we are on a par with commercial farmers as we can offer consistency of supply but we are still individual small producers too.'' The businessman-turned-farmer produces around 600 pigs a year on an outdoor system at 46-acre Model Farm near Tenby. His 22 breeding sows are a mixture of Large Whites crossed with a Welsh boar and Oxford Sandy and Blacks which he crosses to a Large White. Keeping pigs started as hobby, alongside running his own civil engineering business, but it is now more or less a full-time job, with a part-time helper too. Almost all his sales are through Red Dragon Porc Cyf although he is also licenced to sell meat from the farm as Tenby Woodland Pork. Before the abattoir was established at Cilshafe, he would need to make a 150-mile round trip to the facility at Maesteg. The next stage for the co-operative could be to establish a meat box scheme. The throughput of pigs through the Lloyds' abattoir, which also processes other livestock, will be small initially but that is projected to increase as sales gain momentum. The facility has so far has created four full-time jobs and more could follow. Picture caption: Collaborating on pork marketing: Pictured from the left are Tom Young, Nic Caine, Martyn Lloyd, Ed Walker, Will Kerr and Lilwen Joynson
Wales Online
23-05-2025
- Business
- Wales Online
Wales' love affair with nation's favourite drink could reshape its hills and valleys
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Rows of tea plants could become a more familiar sight on the hills of Wales in the future, researchers believe. Cutting-edge science – including AI – is being harnessed to select optimum growing sites and take advantage of the warming climate. Not so long ago, Welsh hill farmers would have scoffed at the idea, and most scientists would have agreed with them. But in late 2023, trials of began on a 150-acre beef and sheep farm in Powys and the results could open the doors to domestic tea revolution. In the hope of boosting farm profits through diversification, Mandy Lloyd planted 140 Camellia sinensis tea bushes on different plots at Cleobury Farm at Heyope, Knighton. The site were selected using 'geospatial analysis', a process which matches the compatibility of crops with micro factors such as climate, light intensity and soil characteristics. If Mandy succeeds, with support from Welsh Government body Farming Connect, she will become the first UK grower to produce the crop on a hill farm. She sees it as a way of shortening supply chains by reducing leaf imports from Kenya, Sri Lanka and India. 'There is a need for an environmentally and socially responsible food and drink local supply chain,' she suggested Tea is grown successfully in Britain's lowland areas, notably in the south of England where where several tea plantations have been established. Blazing a trail in Wales was Vale of Glamorgan fruit farmer Lucy George, who established her tea enterprise near Cardiff back in 2013. She began by importing seeds from all over the world to select ones that would cope with more extreme conditions. It took her years for her tea plants to reach knee height before the laborious picking process could get underway. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now (Image: Farming Connect) Her Peterston Tea is now being sold by the likes of Llanrwst's Blas ar Fwyd. At £18 for a 12g pouch, it's not cheap, reflecting the effort involved in growing it. But there is a quality dividend, she believes. 'The climate is quite challenging,' Lucy told the BBC. 'It's very marginal conditions for tea, but to some extent it lends itself to hopefully a better flavour tea, because it grows a lot slower than it would in more equatorial regions.' To assess the potential for cultivating tea in places likes Wales, Aberystwyth University scientists have been using machine-learning to analyse UK-grown bushes. As well as assisting Mandy in Powys, the research team is assessing six varieties of tea being grown at the Dartmoor Estate Tea plantation in Devon. By identifying and quantifying metabolites at a molecular level, the team hopes to establish the best microclimates and soils. This emerging field, called metabolomics, aims to better to understand metabolic processes in plants and animals. Speaking on International Tea Day 2025, senior researcher Dr Amanda J Lloyd said: 'This study is contributing to the growing field of metabolomics by providing a comprehensive chemical profile of tea grown in a non-traditional region. 'Our findings offer new insights into the adaptability of tea plants and their potential for cultivation in emerging regions, contributing to global food security and agricultural diversification.' Further research is still needed to gain a full understanding of tea chemistry, she said. But the team remains hopeful its findings will help the UK tea growers develop climate-appropriate production strategies. It raises the prospect of the Welsh hills and their misty valleys one day boasting terraced tea plantations like those in traditional growing countries. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox Find out what's happening near you
Pembrokeshire Herald
23-05-2025
- Health
- Pembrokeshire Herald
Robots could help check biodiversity loss
BALANCING soil nutrient levels by applying calcium to farmland could help farmers reduce weed populations and their synthetic fertiliser and chemical use. In common with many farmers, lamb and egg producers Ben Anthony and Diana Fairclough face a perpetual battle to control thistles, docks, nettles and other common weeds on their 73-hectare farm in Carmarthenshire. When they recently hosted a Farming Connect event led by agronomist Daniel Lievesley, he suggested that an incorrect balance of soil nutrients could be a reason for those annual weed burdens at Frowen Farm, Login, where lamb is produced from 370 breeding ewes, and eggs from free range hens. Getting soil analysed should be a first step to addressing weed issues, advised Daniel from DJL Agriculture. Weeds are not only problems to be dealt with but indicators of issues in soil balance, he pointed out. 'Weeds establish where there's a nutrient deficiency. For example, docks mine for calcium, so if you address the calcium deficiency, you take away the very reason for the docks to be there. 'You will often find that the forage that grows around a weed is high in nutrients because the weed tap roots draw up minerals from deep in the soil to feed it.' Daniel warned farmers against focusing solely on chemicals to control weeds, recommending that they address the nutritional function in their soils. At Frowen, for example, soil sampling shows that the clay soils have a high iron content, locking up phosphorous and zinc. Introducing air into the soil with aeration is a means of addressing this, but so too is rectifying the mineral imbalances. Common farmland weeds like nettles, chickweed and fat hen are indicators of high nitrates, for example, while low calcium levels encourage docks and thistles. When calcium levels are low, Daniel advocates applying gypsum as a means of changing cations in the soil, supplying calcium to replace some of the magnesium bound by soil particles, particularly in clay soils. The calcium:magnesium ratio on a soil analysis report should ideally sit at around 8:1; any less and the calcium deficiency needs to be addressed to prevent weeds taking hold. 'Mined gypsum is a wonderful way to apply calcium sulphate to release the magnesium into the soil,' said Daniel. Gypsum is best applied when there is rain in the weather forecast. Daniel specifies use of naturally-mined gypsum, not reclaimed plasterboard which contains resins, glues, and heavy metals which present issues for livestock. At current prices, gypsum comes at a cost of £20–£32/tonne, depending on a farm's proximity to a quarry, and a further £5–£10/acre spreading charge. Calcium is closely linked with mycorrhizal fungi soil interactions too, which again keeps weeds at bay. Integrating trees into agricultural systems can also reduce weed burdens. They do this by creating shade to deprive weeds of light, by competing for resources in the soil, and through the weed-suppressing mulch effect of leaf litter. Farming Connect's Forestry Specialist, Geraint Jones, a speaker at the event, explained that trees improved soil health, keeping weeds at bay, and that they establish physical barriers against the spreading of weed seeds. Tree and hedgerow root systems draw nutrients from deeper soil layers and these are circulated within the ecosystem, contributing to overall soil health and significantly adding to the soil's carbon content through storing carbon in roots and the decomposition of root biomass and leaf litter. 'Many tree species form symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil,' Geraint told farmers. 'These fungi extend the reach of the tree's root system, significantly increasing the surface area for nutrient and water absorption that they mine from deeper layers.' In exchange, the tree provides the fungi with carbohydrates. These fungal networks also connect different plants, potentially facilitating nutrient transfer between them. The last event of this series will be held on Thursday, 22 May 2025 (16:00–18:00) at Plas Du, Oswestry SY10 0BQ. To book on to this event or for more information, visit the Farming Connect website.
