Fine Tuning Pays Dividends in Welsh Farming’s Race to Net Zero

Producing lambs on land rising to 1,250 feet while making efficiency improvements to reduce agricultural emissions isn’t without its challenges. But by fine tuning his practices, one Carmarthenshire sheep farmer is seeing a positive impact on his ambition to achieve net zero. 

What started as a cost cutting exercise eight years ago has given Garry Williams a head start in agriculture’s race to reduce emissions, putting into practice the measures outlined in Perfecting the Welsh Way, a practical sustainability guide produced by Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC).

© Hybu Cig Cymru

He stopped applying synthetic fertiliser 10 years ago and mitigated the impact on grass growth by improving soil nutrient status and by increasing the percentage of clover in his leys.

“You notice it when you remove 20-30 tonnes of fertiliser a year from the system, there was a big shock to grass production overall, but after two to three years we saw the land adjusting and responding positively to that change.’’

Applied nutrients are now in the form of poultry manure sourced from a trusted free range egg farm, to bolster phosphate and potash levels if soil tests show it is needed.

“We are extremely careful where we get the manure from, we make every effort to ensure that listeria isn’t brought onto the farm,’’ says Mr Williams.

There is still a trade-off with the pattern  of grass production. Growth is slow to kick start in the spring but the lambing period has been adjusted accordingly, starting 20 days later to match grazing availability.

Another impact is a lower lambing percentage – it now averages 130-132% compared to 145-148% when fertiliser boosted grass supply.

“We are not producing the same level of output, livestock sales income is down but so too are input levels so we still see that as a positive,’’ says Mr Williams.

But he is quick to point out that the most sustainable farmers are the ones that match their production to their resources.

“If you run a high input system with large amounts of chemical fertiliser and concentrates there’s the potential that your costs and carbon footprint is going to be higher.’’

The flock’s concentrate intakes average around 10 tonnes a year.

© Hybu Cig Cymru

Mr Williams’ family has farmed Blaencennen Farm at Gwynfe, near Llangadog, since his parents bought the 170-acre holding in 1956.

A further 130 acres have since been acquired, bringing the total area farmed to 300 acres, which includes 25 acres of mixed broadleaf woodland, and the business also has extensive grazing rights to the Black Mountain on the western edge of the Brecon Beacons.

The business revolves around finished lamb production and sales of performance recorded breeding stock.

Mr Williams farms 700 ewes, made up of improved Welsh mountain, home produced crossbreds and a breeding flock of composite ewes.

He has been performance recording his Welsh flock for the last 20 years.

“I need a good efficient ewe to fit into the system here,’’ he maintains.

“Performance recording is a great tool that allows me to look at the science behind the productivity.’’

He breeds performance-recorded tups from a nucleus flock of high index EBV ewes, drawing 250 of the best-indexing Signet-recorded Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) ewes into the nucleus and breeding replacements from them to sell as breeding stock.

Three hundred ewes are crossed with Aberfields to breed replacements on contract, with 200 sold to two long standing customers.

Through careful ram selection and identifying and keeping the best performing ewes, Mr Williams has seen an increase of 2.5kg average in carcase weights, with three quarters of his Welsh ram lambs at 43kg liveweight or heavier when sold.

When selecting ewe lamb replacements, he removes the lambs with an index in the bottom third for the flock. The remaining lambs are inspected for type, structure and their  suitability to breed from. 

Only the top 50% index of ewes are bred pure, with the remainder put to a composite ram to breed ewe lambs suitable for breeding and prime lambs; wether lambs are marketed at 45kg liveweight and sold through livestock markets.

When purchasing hill rams for the farm, from the annual recorded sale at Innovis or from the Welsh ram sale at Tregaron, Mr Williams selects rams with a positive fat, positive muscle and maternal ability as priority EBVs in their index.

“We buy some with EBVs but also some without to broaden the genetic base, we immediately put these on the system and assess them,’’ he explains.

He was one of the original group of farmers who supplied genetics to the Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) Hill Ram Scheme flocks and has since shared his knowledge and experience with those recording through this genetic improvement scheme.

Mr Williams has also made improvements through support he has received through HCC’s Stoc+ programme to work closely with his vet on proactive animal health planning.

© Hybu Cig Cymru

He takes regular faecal egg counts and monitors the effectiveness of  both  wormers and flukicides with faecal and blood testing.

For the last 12 years, Mr Williams has grown high clover leys.

He hasn’t ploughed for two years and is taking steps to reduce that cultivation method going forward.

“We scratch up the surface or we graze the silage fields with sheep, to get them to tread it up a bit, and we then apply seed,’’ he explains.

To achieve a target pH of 6.5 between 40-80 tonnes of lime is spread annually.

“Soil pH is seen as extremely important for grass growth, I see lime as the most important fertiliser of all,’’ Mr Williams maintains.

A third of the farm is soil tested every year and poultry manure is applied according to the needs of individual fields.

“If Ps and Ks are 2 or higher we don’t put any on, any less and we do,’’ says Mr Williams.

He has been quick to capitalise on support available from other initiatives run by HCC.

His farm was carbon audited for HCC’s The Welsh Way initiative, which examines how Welsh lamb and beef stands in the global context of sustainability and food security.

He describes that carbon report as “largely positive’’ but he is concerned that there is as yet no industry standard for carbon auditing and that is putting businesses like his at a disadvantage to woodland creation.

“We need commonly accepted figures, for instance per hectare of permanent grassland or per 100 metres of hedgerow, they are already in place for tree planting.’’

Last year he planted 1500 hedging plants as part of his Glastir Advanced agreement and says he will look at planting small areas of the farm with species of native trees if the new Welsh Government sustainable farming scheme rewards farmers for that.

But, he insists: “We won’t be planting all of Blaencennen with trees, we don’t want to see large swathes of Welsh upland planted with trees because that will be a disaster for our local economies, our communities and our Welsh language.’’