Honours for Welsh farmers
One of Wales’s most successful breeders of Welsh Black cattle, Mrs Gwenfair Jones of Bala, Meirionnydd, has been made an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies. During a lifetime’s work with the native breed on the hill farm where her family have lived for over 500 years, she has produced a succession of championship winning animals including a bull which holds the breed’s record sale price of 22,000 gns.
Mrs Jones, who has judged Welsh Blacks at every county show in Wales and also at the Royal and Royal Welsh shows, is a former president of the Welsh Black Cattle Society and in 2005 she was made an Honorary Life Vice President of the society in recognition of her contribution to the breed.
Three other agriculturalists in Wales have been made Associates by the Council for Awards of the Royal Agricultural Societies. John Lougher of Pyle, Bridgend, Glamorgan, has become an Associate for his contribution to education in farming and for broadening understanding between farmers and the wider public. A tireless advocate of the YFC he revived the fortunes of the movement in Glamorgan, particularly of Wick YFC which is now one of the strongest clubs in the county, and he has promoted the interests of the industry through farm and school visits, milk retailing, and holiday lets. He is a former county chairman and president of Glamorgan NFU.
Rowland Davies of Machynlleth, Powys, was made an Associate for his work in supporting the breeds of Dorset Horn and Poll Dorset sheep in the UK. A Senior
Investigational Officer with Aberystwyth University’s Farm Business Survey for the past 30 years, working on the annual accounts of some 80 farms in Wales, his interest in Dorset breeds of sheep was sparked when a 27 year-old ewe in his father’s flock entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1987 as the oldest ewe in the world. As well as developing his own successful flock of Poll Dorsets he has promoted the breed in Wales and Northern Ireland and founded the Welsh Poll Dorset Club which now embraces 35 flocks. He has been chairman of the Dorset Horn and the Poll Dorset Sheep Breeders Society for the past four years.
Richard Tudor of New Cross, Aberystwyth, the fourth new Associate in Wales, has expanded the acreage of his farm from 360 to 1060 acres since 1984. As a progressive farmer seeking new ways of reducing costs and improving efficiency, a system was adopted whereby all ewes are housed, winter shorn, scanned and fed on self-feed silage prior to being turned out at lambing during February and March. In 2007, the decision was taken to convert the farm to organic status, with all the lambs sold through Waitrose and cattle through Celtic Pride. He was Student of the Year at the Welsh Agricultural College in 1980 and won the YFC public speaking award for Wales with presentations in the English and Welsh languages.
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