Farm’s grazing herds promote biodiversity
SET within 400 acres of the Waun Las National Nature Reserve just outside Carmarthen you can find a mosaic of flower-rich meadows, spectacular woodlands, waterfalls and cascades – and Pantwgan Farm.
The organic farm is part of the National Botanic Garden of Wales and is run under the watchful eye of lead farm manager Huw Jones.
Looking after the environment, maintaining biodiverse habitats and producing food are of critical importance.
Here Huw looks after traditional breeds of Welsh Black Cattle and Balwen sheep.
Describing the role they play in managing the habitats and nature reserve, he says: “They’re really key to what we do here. We farm for biodiversity, that’s the reason we’re here. But farming for biodiversity you have to have livestock, the two are inextricably linked.”
Not intense in livestock numbers with just 70 head of cattle during the summer and 60 breeding ewes, the farm has been organic for the last 21 years. With limited housing for the sheep and cattle, Huw uses the small herd and flock to its full potential on the 360 acres of permanent grassland.
“A lot of people will see the acreage we have versus the stocking levels and will think that it’s wildly understocked, and that might be true. But without the sheep and the cattle and the targeted grazing that they do we would not have this landscape. Without those animals grazing – managing the grassland as they do, we simply wouldn’t have the diverse landscape that we have,” adds Huw.
The farm was established in 1998, when the National Botanic Garden took over the lease of the land. The core missions of the garden from the outset were biodiversity, education and conservation.
“We needed the farmland to deliver those missions. So, the farm got established very early on in the first years and from there on we’ve worked towards conservation, biodiversity, education,” he explains.
Before starting his full-time farming career, Huw went to agricultural college. However, with little money in farming, there was not enough work to keep him on his parents’ 90-acre holding after graduating. “There wasn’t any work around at the local farms so I went to work in a factory just a few miles down the road. It was meant to be a short stopgap, but I spent four years there, it wasn’t for me. I wanted to farm. This job happened to come along at the same time that I left the factory and I jumped at the chance. I haven’t looked back,” says Huw. And 17 years later he hasn’t looked back, taking great pride in the work that is being done on the land at Pantwgan farm.
“It’s really good here. We established the National Nature Reserve (NNR) back in 2008. We wanted it to be an SSSI to start off with, but at that time we didn’t have the amount of species that were needed. It turned out to be a really good thing because the restrictions that come with SSSI status are really quite stringent and we got the National Nature Reserve status in 2008,” says Huw.
Keeping the NNR going and flourishing is the focal point of the work that is being done here but none of this would happen without the livestock, as they’re being used for targeted grazing. “What is nice here is that we have plenty of flexibility in trying out new things. We can pretty much have a stab at whatever we want and we try out projects on a small scale,” explains Huw.
An added benefit of being so closely linked to the National Botanic Garden is that the farm can draw on educational resources and reciprocally help educate visitors about the work that is being done here. “We can call the garden staff in for the educational side here and we’re in a unique position in that we’ve got the visitors who come to explore the grounds. It’s a positive way of engaging with our consumers and showing them how farming here helps the environment and biodiversity flourish,” says Huw.
Another benefit of the Natural Nature Reserve and the way it is managed through grazing practices are the varying types of Waxcaps which now call these fields their home.
“We have recorded over 40 different types of grassland fungi on one of our fields, 10 of which have the same international conservation status as the snow leopard, polar bear, European bison and Sumatran orangutan.
“These internationally rare Waxcaps have really started to spread across the site since we started managing the farm in an organic way and through the structured grazing that we do,” says Huw.
To further maintain and enhance biodiversity, the land doesn’t get ploughed and is kept as permanent pasture. In addition, wildflower meadows have also made a big comeback, now taking in 40 acres. And there is more to the wildflower meadows than meets the eye. Huw explains: “We’re actually doing some quite interesting DNA research here, looking at the soil life on our meadows versus nature reserves and more intensive grassland elsewhere in Wales. We’re hoping to understand more fully how our less intensive farming benefits the biodiversity below our feet and creates a more resilient farming ecosystem.
“There is also growing interest in how hay meadows or permanent pasture has a better root structure and helps to lock carbon in the soil. It’s almost like an underground forest.
“Obviously if you are growing trees at some point you are going to cut those trees down, which releases a lot of carbon that’s been stored. Whereas if you’ve got this permanent pasture that’s managed by livestock it’s captured there permanently. That is a lot better for the environment longer term.
“The future of the farm is exciting. We have so many opportunities here to trial things, look at the science and work out how we can feed an evergrowing population in a sustainable way. We have to find a balance between conservation and feeding people and I’m excited to be part of finding solutions to that problem.”