‘I’m fortunate to be so close to the family farm’
Our young farmer this month is Steffan Harries from north Pembrokeshire who is 18 years old and lives with his parents Arwyn and Sharon.
His brother Hedd is in his second year studying veterinary medicine at Warsaw University in Poland, and his sister Grug is studying for her A-levels.
Steffan left Ysgol Y Preseli when he was 16 years old and couldn’t wait to be home on their beef and sheep farm at Garregwen, Boncath.
He admits that schoolwork was never his top priority, but he excels when it comes to the more hands-on farming chores and has a good eye for choosing quality livestock.
Here is what he has to say about his work as a young farmer, the difficulties of starting in the industry and his plans for the future: IN March of this year my grandfather David Harries decided to retire from his 70-acre farm at Clyn, Boncath, and this gave me a fantastic opportunity to take over the farm on a longterm tenancy and also gave me the chance to purchase my own cattle and sheep.
One of my first and special purchases were two Pedigree Charolais heifers from the Penrhiw herd of Dai Lewis, Llandysul. Also, another two Pedigree Charolais cows were purchased to add to the Pedigree herd.
I look forward to seeing my first Charolais bull being sold in the spring.
I also keep a further 20 suckler cows, mainly Limousin and Belgian Blue X cows, and I have a stock of 25 stores which I sell at local markets and some a little further afield at Brecon Market where I got top price in one of their monthly summer sales.
I have also purchased 50 cross-bred ewes, mainly Charolais and Texel ewes, and they have mated with Beltex rams to produce quality early-season lambs. I have future plans to purchase additional store lambs to graze the fields during winter.
In the last few weeks we have been busy bringing the animals into winter housing as the weather has not been favourable, and also preparing for a TB test which will hopefully be a clear.
I have been helping on my father’s farm building a new lambing shed, which I’m hoping will be ready before the lambing season at the end of December.
In the next few weeks I will also need to do some fencing jobs around the farm.
A new addition to our family is a Collie puppy called Carlo. Carlo has shown a lot of interest in the sheep, so I’m hoping he will continue to improve with more training.
I feel fortunate to be able to farm so close to the family farm and being able to use all the necessary machinery and equipment from my father that I would never be able to afford to buy at this stage.
Life on the farm is always busy and I don’t have too much free time, but I have recently purchased a vintage tractor which I hope to restore over the next few years.
I count myself very lucky that I have been given this rare chance to start farming at a young age.
“The biggest challenge young farmers face today is being able to access land, most of which is snapped up by larger farms at high rent, outpricing people wanting to get started in farming.
My thoughts for the future of the farming industry are positive and I would like to increase my livestock numbers in the near future. I feel we need to be selling more of our products locally and not be so reliant on food imports.