FUW DEPUTY PRESIDENT AND SONS WIN BRITISH GRASSLAND TITLE

Farmers' Union of Wales deputy president Emyr Jones and his two sons have picked up a top national grassland management accolade.

Their family-run beef and sheep farm on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park has been judged the winner of the 2008 British Grassland Society's national grassland management competition, sponsored by GrowHow UK and DLF-Trifolium.

Mr Jones and sons, Aled (30) and Dylan (26), farm 190ha (470 acres) at Rhiwaedog, Rhosygwaliau, Bala, and are members of the Meirionnydd Grassland Society.

Nearly all the grass is on land reclaimed from bracken, gorse and scrub over the past 30 years, yet the high quality ryegrass and clover swards are managed to optimise intakes and regrowth by careful attention to stocking rate and control of sward height, impressing the competition judges.

Emyr paid tribute to his sons after the result was announced during this week's Dairy Event and Livestock Show at Stoneleigh. "They did all the hard work to make sure we were able to add the British title to the Welsh title we received at the Royal Welsh Show.

"This wonderful achievement is really down to them," Emyr added.

Head judge, farmer Richard Ratcliffe, said Emyr and his two sons rightly take immense pride in what they have achieved on what most people would consider to be an impossible place to make a living.

"The grassland would do credit to any farm on the best lowland soil, never mind 300m up a wet, Welsh hill. The quality of the stock matched the quality of the grassland, and helped to make this a profitable business for the family."

In addition to being 180-340m above sea level, in an area with more than 2,000mm of rainfall, the land is extremely steep and rocky over large areas. It carries 1,200 breeding ewes (900 Welsh Mountain and 300 crossbreds) and a pedigree 60-cow Welsh Black suckler herd.

The grassland policy is aimed at making the most of grazed grass, and designing a livestock system which maximises grass utilisation, and capitalises on the investments made in land improvement over the years. The farm is all down to very high quality perennial ryegrass/small leaf white clover leys.

It is self-sufficient for winter forage, using lower flatter fields to make one cut from about 40ha (100 acres) in the second half of June. Silage is made as round bales, using their own machinery. Reseeding is done as needed, mainly on the silage fields with weed control mainly achieved by keeping a dense sward, and spot treating any weeds that do appear.

It is self-sufficient for winter forage, using lower flatter fields to make one cut from about 40ha (100 acres) in the second half of June. Silage is made as round bales, using their own machinery. Reseeding is done as needed, mainly on the silage fields with weed control mainly achieved by keeping a dense sward, and spot treating any weeds that do appear.

"Highly impressive dense, leafy swards were present over the whole farm in early September as a result of a high degree of management over the earlier part of the season," said Mr Ratcliffe.

Fields are fenced into 3-10ha (8-25 acre) blocks, depending on the terrain to increase flexibility in maintaining the right stocking rate for the grass growth.

Winter management of the grass revolves around housing the cattle from late October until early May, to leave as much grass for the sheep over winter.

Good levels of livestock production are achieved by using breeds well adapted to farm conditions and investing in careful selection for breeding. This resulted in 1,126 ewes producing 1,832 lambs sold (163%) last year, giving an output of £63/ewe in a difficult year.

The number of ewes and size of the lamb crop is considered as optimal for the farm. A higher lambing % would mean more triplets, which are very difficult to manage on a hill farm, said Emyr.

The sale of yearling crossbred ewes brings in a good premium of up to £85 each and 25 pure Welsh rams are also kept for selling as yearlings for breeding, also bringing in a significant premium.

Emyr believes the Welsh Black breed is ideal for the farm situation and terrain. They are not as fast growing as crossbreds, but having the herd as pedigree adds considerable value to the stock to justify keeping them.

All manure from housed cattle is stored as slurry and used on silage fields in spring, after sheep have moved off, in mid May. Solid muck from housed sheep and young cattle is spread on higher grazing fields.

The farm has just finished a 10 year Tir Cymen environmental scheme, which has seen funding for tree planting (4,000), hedge planting (3,000m), fencing round existing woods, and 785m of stone walls rebuilt. An application will be made to join the next scheme when details are published.