The sky’s the limit for farm entrepreneur

A FARMING entrepreneur with “limitless potential” has become one of the youngest ever winners of a top Royal Welsh award.

Jim Ellis, of Llwyndyrus Farm, Y Ffor, Pwllheli, collected the Dr Emrys Evans Award at this week’s Royal Welsh Show.

Awarded to farm-based individuals aged under 35, this year’s award was aimed at candidates who had “Embraced Innovation and Communication Skills”.

As a young beef and sheep farmer who launched his own photography, videography and drone venture, Jim, 23, fitted the brief exactly.

According to the judges, Jim’s business is something “many would expect to find in the middle of Cardiff or London”.

Jim, who considers his tractor cab an extension of his office, balks at this.

“I often get asked the question, ‘why don’t you base yourself in a big city like London or Cardiff’,” he said.

“I find this attitude so disheartening. There are so many opportunities on the Llŷn Peninsula, and rural Wales in general, where we can produce services of the same or better standard as anywhere.

“With the rise of digital technology, it doesn’t matter where you are based.

“I often sit in my tractor cab and take calls from creative clients or take booking for the holiday lets we run on the farm.”

From his farm-based creative studios Jim offers everything from drone videography to graphics and 3D visualisation.

The idea, he says, is to show off Welsh farming and other rural businesses at their best, across all platforms: social media is an important facet of his work.

Having established his own venture, New View Imaging, with clients ranging from machinery dealers to arts centres, earlier this year Jim went into partnership with another digital business, When It Rains Creative.

This expanded the reach and capacity of both firms, enabling them to take on pan-Wales projects. One client is BookTrust Cymru, for whom Jim is filming at six schools across the country: the aim is to inspire a love of reading in children.

Another client is Coleg Glynllifon, where Jim is sharing his creative and business skills with students, encouraging them to think of themselves not just as young farmers, but as entrepreneurs, innovators and communicators. A video of the students’ work was launched at the show yesterday.

Jim is also a partner in the family farm, where his quest for efficiencies is driving rapid change. A new slated-floor shed, for 130 cattle, was erected last winter, cutting straw costs and cleaning times.

The farm’s 900-head sheep flock is being phased out. All should be gone by 2020 as the business focuses entirely on beef: it currently finishes 300 bought-in cattle each year.

Part of the reasoning was driven by Brexit, part by Jim’s own sentiments towards sheep.

“I don’t like them much!” he admitted. “But it’s a safer bet and may Brexit-proof the business, as more beef than lamb goes into the domestic market.”

It was Jim’s ability to “think outside the box”, seek out efficiencies and use every avenue to promote Welsh farming, which impressed RWAS award judges Susan Jones and Anna Jones.

“At just 23-years-old we felt there are no limits to Jim’s potential,” they said.