I am 29 years old and I live in North Wales on the Llyn Peninsular with my Fiancée, Mari Jones and our 3 children, Seren 7, Sionyn 4 and Steffan 1.

I am a first generation farmer and grew up in the city of Manchester (England). From an early age my mother and father took me and my brothers to North Wales on camping holidays where I discovered my passion for agriculture.

I didn’t enjoy school and I left at 15 with no qualifications, and after much debate my parents agreed that I could go to the farm where we went camping to stay with the farmer and his family for a 4 month period, lambing sheep and milking his 35 cows. On my 16th birthday I bought a 50cc moped which then allowed me to travel and find more work.

I was working three jobs and learning from scratch, anything from stone - walling, fencing, sheep work and rearing turkeys for extra cash.

At 17 I travelled to New Zealand to work with a shearing contractor for three months, which certainly disciplined me. That’s when I realised that working your body that hard was not sustainable.

On my return I met with Rhys Williams and David Wynne Finch who were milking 1,100 cows on a New Zealand style, block calving, grass based system just two miles away. At this point I was lost, but knew that I enjoyed milking cows. I asked for a full time position and Rhys agreed, on the condition that I went back to NZ for further training. So I hopped back on a plane and spent 6 months working on a 400 cow grass system in the south island. This was an all grass fed diet and the main emphasis was grass grown, grass utilised, residuals and fertility. This taught me the importance of monitoring grass and correctly allocating quality feed. The jersey cows were small, efficient grass converters. I learned more than I thought was possible, about something I was really interested in and now passionate about. I lived in with a family of 8 who were extremely kind and welcoming and Mari also came to visit for 1 month. This played an important part in our relationship as ‘absence made the heart grow fonder’. We both understood what each other wanted.

2008

I started my full time job as a junior herdsman on the 300ha, 1,100 cow farm which was a simple, efficient and profitable business. At this point I was introduced to discussion groups, which was a huge confidence builder. Being accepted into something that was very new to me and finding myself surrounded by positive people has been invaluable.

2009

I used part of my wages to purchase my first 20 weaned heifer calves and I found 8 acres of poor quality grassland to rent. The land was improved by rotationally grazing calves and out wintering being used as a tool for reseeding. These calves were reared very cheap, bringing me a profit of £7,000 the following spring. I thought I was rich, this was the most money I had ever had and I knew I was going to invest it wisely.

2010

I purchased another 47 weaned heifer calves with the money and secured another 15 acres from a guy in a Welsh language night class. Following the same process again, with a similar profit per head, I was feeling quite confident to continue and grow the numbers.

2011

I had purchased 82 heifers and rented another 50 acres of land off the council located 16 miles from home. I now bought a quad bike and used a small fertiliser spreader behind. I fenced these places as cheap as possible, re-using posts and old reel wire. Old pulsator pipes were cut and used as insulators and handles. Mari and I never had a spare penny but this was the driver. I constantly wanted the challenge of just making ends meet and the thought of complacency was a no go area!

In November 2011, I was fortunate enough to receive ‘The Richard John Memorial Bursary’ from the Grasshoppers group in South Wales. This allowed me to travel back to New Zealand and Australia for a month to learn about contract heifer rearing, share farming and cow leasing.

2012

I used the knowledge gained to lease out 50 incalf heifers for two years. By doing this I retained equity, whilst adhering to my main objective of not becoming complacent. I realised that in order to continue growing, I would now need to borrow money and I had built a good reputation and relationship with my bank. Each year I would inform them as to what my plans were and I was over achieving year on year. This secured me my first £30,000 loan, which I used to purchase more stock. At this point I realised I had to manage my time more efficiently. We had one child and were expecting our second and I had to work things around my full time job.

2013

I was given the opportunity to manage the 300ha farm and took it in my stride. At this point we owned 50 leased cows, 109 bulling heifers and 110 weaned heifer calves. This is when I started thinking about share-farming and realised that soon I would have to either sell all of them before calving, lease them all out which was risky, or find an opportunity to milk them in my own right.

I was approached by David Wynne Finch who offered me a 50/50 share farming opportunity just 2 miles away from where I worked and where I originally camped as a child. We started the conversion on a 100ha green field site which I oversaw. This was invaluable and played a huge part in my personal development, dealing with and managing people.

2014

We started milking 350 x bred heifers through a 24/48 Waikato parlour with ACRs. This runs as a 1 man band for 9 months of the season and the farm is run with 1 full time staff member and myself, with relief through calving. All youngstock is contract reared, meaning we can focus on cows and grass, this is what we are truly passionate about.

2015

I travelled to New Zealand on the ‘Positive Farmers Tour’, which gave me complete clarity on the system we manage. I was aware that ‘complacency could strike’ therefore, we need to run an even lower cost, robust and efficient grazing system that can withstand fierce volatility, which will NOT compromise our long term personal and business goals. I was incredibly fortunate to be accepted on the trip, we were allowed exclusive access to New Zealand’s top 2% performing dairy farmers. The trip has broadened my network, gaining great friendships and a wealth of knowledge along the way.

2016

We increased numbers to 400 cows and the business is a ‘lean machine’, generating cash and surplus stock and allowing me to think BIG. I have never been good at goal setting or having a vision of what our lives will look like in the future, so I applied and took part in the Wealth Creation course. This really got me thinking and completely changed my perspective of certain things. I used to be completely driven and focused by money, be it right or wrong?! I now know exactly what I am going to achieve and why I want to achieve it! The WCC made me realise what I do and do not value, what is and isn’t important and how I define wealth. It is not just money, but family, friends and relationships that count.

2017

2017 has been a good year for dairying, we are still driving on, paying debt and looking to expand. I keep an open mind to all types of systems and different formations of joint ventures, as long as they match certain criteria and don’t compromise people, family time and progression.

I have spent a lot of time this year networking and looking for opportunities to create pathways for those ambitious individuals and to offer them a stepping stone into the industry. This also applies equally to those who are choosing to either exit or take a step back whilst still seeing their hard work continued.

2018

My short term goal is to locate a second unit and to be involved in other people’s progression, sharing the cake and giving back to society.

My long term goal is to replicate my short term.