Family builds on the future

Western Mail - May 9 2006

I DON'T want to do anything else and neither do my sons," says Ann Morgan, the fourth generation of her family to farm at Penmaenau, Llanelwedd.

The enterprise now extends to eight holdings and 800 acres, and accommodates 2,300 ewes, a flock that Ann and her Two Sons Gareth and Gwyn have rebuilt after most of their sheep were culled during the foot-and-mouth epidemic five years ago.

But her sons Gareth and Gwyn and daughters-in-law Nicky and Lisa have both given her grandsons and a Grandaughter there is the future to think of.

"If you are going to stay ahead of the times you have to look ahead and diversify," says Ann.

"With the potential of two more families to keep you have to look at where you go and make the best of the assets you have."

Penmaenau Farm borders the Royal Welsh showground, and has been a caravan and camping site for 35 years.

 

During the Royal Welsh Show it accommodates 3,500 people on 800 pitches and all the land except the site is used for showground parking and other facilities.

 

There is free entertainment every night in the clubhouse and plenty of facilities for children.

 

"It's been built up over the years and is now a good family site that provides for the younger element," says Ann.

 

They have also built up a fleet of portable Bars toilets and showers, that are available for a wide range of events and situations in Wales and the wider UK.

 

Now they are building on their assets by staging the first Heart of Wales Country Fair next August.

 

The event will take place over the weekend of August 18 and 19 and will feature a hound show and drag trail, a family dog show, lurcher and terrier show and racing, simulated coursing, falconry, farmers' market and a digging competition, with evening entertainment on both days.

 

The idea came from Alun, a Valleys lad who was born and bred in Penrhiwceiber, and Gareth, who are both country sports enthusiasts.

 

"What foot-and-mouth did to farming by stopping the markets, the hunt ban has done to country fairs - it's stopped the social life around hunting," says Alun, a former lurcher judge who runs his own pest control service from the farm, dealing with anything from crows and moles to rats and wasps.

 

He describes the fair as "almost my dream venture" and has bought some beautiful antique hunting horns to give as prizes in the drag trials.

 

"It will be a country fair where people can come along and socialise and enjoy themselves."

 

Ann says one of the farm's assets was its location in the heart of Wales. We have such beautiful scenery but we're on the map because we're on the main A470 and next door to the Royal Welsh. We are very lucky to have these assets and we have to make the most of them."

 

But the core of the family business remains farming, and Ann says they were lucky that 300 of their Beulah Speckled Face flock, started by her grandfather, were accommodated on tack in Usk when foot-and-mouth was wrongly diagnosed as present. A total of 1,781 Beulahs, 70% of their flock, were slaughtered unnecessarily in 2001.

 

"But we still have the bloodline and what we are breeding from now are direct descendents of the original flock," she says.

 

They now have 650 Beulahs running alongside a commercial flock of Mule, Texel, Suffolk and Welsh crosses.

 

With so much to do and only outside staff hired during the lambing season and at weekends, along with seasonal contractors, Ann says planning is everything.

 

"It's not a typical farm and it's all to do with cost effectiveness," she says.

 

On top of everything, she is a Powys county councillor, winning with a majority of 157 over a rival who had held the seat for four decades.

 

"Local farmers support me and know I will fight my corner. I believe farming has a lot to give to the area."

 

Hidden costs of latest policies
Ann Morgan has proved to be a canny businesswoman over years of negotiations with the Royal Welsh Show.

 

But she finds some decisions being made in farming today are worrying. For instance, she thinks the current drive to cull sheep that are not resistant to scrapie could create a problem in future. The sheep they are culling may one day prove to be resistant to something else.

 

A deluge of new legislation is making life harder.

 

"How is it better for the environment to burn a dead sheep rather than bury it on your land?" she asks. "It adds to the cost of farming without being of any real benefit to anyone."

 

On the Single Farm Payment she foresees problems arising from the different systems adopted in Wales and England.

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