‘I love the job ... but I may quit’ says the farmer who started out with nothing
Berwyn Jones fears 14 years of hard work may count for nothing as tree-planting concerns grow. Andrew Forgrave reports
AWELSH farmer who started from scratch fears he may have to give up his dream job if the Welsh Government pushes ahead with plans to plant more trees on farmland.
Berwyn Jones, who had no farming background, has spent 14 years building two successful businesses.
Berwyn, whose dad was a lorry driver and whose late mum worked for Hotpoint, still rents land, but dreams of owning his own farm one day.
Despite his surprising entry into farming, he’s brought new ideas to tackle the industry’s problems.
Berwyn is from Llanfairfechan in Conwy, and has a small farm in Bethesda, Gwynedd, where he raises saltmarsh lambs for supermarkets like Waitrose, Tesco and Asda. He also runs a business that helps improve wildlife habitats in north and mid Wales.
To do this, he uses Carneddau ponies from the Eryri mountains.
He works with RSPB Cymru and North Wales Wildlife Trust, who both support using farm payments to help plant trees.
Having seen both sides of the argument, he’s clear about the potential harm this policy could cause.
“I support tree planting but it has to be in the right place,” he said.
“It makes sense to plant them in low-value areas such as rocky outcrops but not on high-grade farmland that’s used to produce the food we all need.”
Right now, the Welsh Government’s proposed Sustainable Farming Scheme, which is meant to replace EU subsidies, will ask those claiming to set aside 10% of their land for trees and another 10% for wildlife habitats.
Even though ministers have promised to fully consider the results of a current consultation, this planned policy is causing a lot of upset among farmers.
It has led to protest rallies and slowmoving tractor protests across Wales in recent weeks.
Berwyn himself felt the impact of the trees-versus-food debate when he lost valuable grazing land he was renting on Anglesey two years ago. He’d been keeping sheep on councilowned land at Breakwater Country Park, Holyhead, for five years when his agreement was suddenly ended.
“It was fantastic, profitable grazing land where I used to send off my market lambs for summer grazing to fatten them ready for the supermarkets,” he said. “Anglesey council wanted land for tree planting and rewilding. It just didn’t make sense to me as the council had acres of non-profitable land in the area which was ideal for tree planting.
“The decision was a bit of a nightmare. Where could I keep my sheep?
In the end, I had to adjust by downsizing my flock by 20%, which meant less food being produced.”
To get started as a farmer, Berwyn got help from New Entrants funding from the Welsh Government, which he said was really important. But that stopped last year, and now Berwyn needs other ways to make money for his farm.
He now works for a road engineering contractor, sometimes on the A55.
Last week he was helping fix things at the A55 Pen-y-clip tunnel. The price for lambs has also helped.
“It’s been fantastic,” he said.
“The best I’ve known it since I began 14 years ago. It’s about time – butchers and the supermarkets have had it good for far too long.”
Berwyn couldn’t go to the protest in Cardiff last week because he was busy on the roads – but he did talk to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at a protest in Llandudno.
“He asked me who I was and what I did,” Berwyn said. “When I told him he looked shocked, as if he thought all farmers had owned their own land for generations. Neither am I sure he realised just how much conservation work farmers already do.”
Many problems are driving the farm protests, but the big one is the new £238m Sustainable Farming Scheme. It could make things hard for farmers like Berwyn who don’t own their land.
He said: “My landlords are very helpful and supportive but they have met much of the scheme’s criteria already. We’re being asked to allocate 20% of land to trees and habitats but they already have that in place.
“Creating new three-metre-wide wildlife corridors will take an awful lot of land out of food production, and it’s not something they’re willing to do. Neither do they want more trees, as they’ve got a fantastic willow plantation for draining the land.
“It seems that, as an industry, we’re being asked to go backward, not forward.” Berwyn might not get enough money to help him to continue farming and looking after nature. He has made a plan for one more year.
If lamb prices fall, he’s worried he won’t be able to keep his business going. Farmers like Berwyn are in a tough spot and farm unions have been saying this a lot. They’re worried that the new farming scheme won’t be fair to farmers who rent their land.
Since about 30% of land in Wales is rented, this is a big worry.
“I’ve given myself 12 months before I decide if I can carry on within the industry,” said Berwyn. “There’s so much uncertainty that planning ahead more than a year, or even six months, is almost impossible and that’s no way to run a business. As a first-generation farmer renting privately, I absolutely love what I do.
“I love the work, and being able to produce high-quality food for the nation. But I can’t make any future plans. It’s heartbreaking to think what I’ve achieved in the last 14 years could now all be lost within months.”
The Welsh Government said it will “listen carefully” to farming concerns and react accordingly. Already this week the administration has pledged further measures, including an updated economic analysis: the previous one forecast 5,500 jobs would be lost in Welsh farming if the scheme was implemented.
Crucially, it was also promised that SFS requirements would be “appropriately targeted”, adding: “This includes ensuring woodland and habitat requirements do not make farms unviable.”
Other ways of sequestering carbon on farmland will also be assessed. Moreover, there was a commitment to ensuring farm payments are “distributed fairly and accessible to all”.