Wise head on young shoulders for award winning farmer

Parc y Wern is his mother’s family farm and in 2012 Bethan, who has her own accountancy firm, and Dylan went into partnership with her parents.

At the time they were milking 90 cows, the pedigree Parc y Wern herd.

Scaling up

Cow numbers quickly scaled up to 150, then 220 the following year, with Harri taking a major role in driving that change.

“I always loved dairy farming; I am told that when I was nine months old I was out feeding the calves with Nan. There was never a question in my mind about whether I would farm, it was a case of when,” says Harri, the winner of the 2023 NFU Cymru/NFU Mutual Dairy Stockperson of the Year Award.

At 16 he left Ysgol y Preseli to take a three-year Extended Level Three Diploma in Agriculture, gaining not only from what he learned on the course but from those who were studying with him.

“The course was very good but it was a big asset to be with people from farms who were all doing things differently, a broad spectrum of people all sharing ideas.”

Returning to the farm

Three years later and Harri returned to the farm, hitting the ground running, pushing cow numbers up to 280 and taking on tenanted land to extend the acreage.

“We have spent the last 10 years growing the business, using a lot of sexed semen particularly in the last five years and now have 450 cows and are aiming for 500 next year,” he explains.

The business had been renting land on 217-acre Henne Fawr and, when it came on the market, they bought the farm for running their youngstock and dry cows.

Around 700 acres is now farmed, with 370 acres owned and the rest rented on Farm Business Tenancy agreements and summer lets.

Purchasing the farm

The last three years have been busy and expensive ones, not only purchasing the farm in April 2023 but making several improvements to the milking and housing facilities for the fully-housed herd.

The herringbone parlour at Parc y Wern was doubled in size to a 48/48. “Milking was taking a long time because we had the same facilities that were in place when we were milking less than half as many cows,” says Harri.

“We had to bite the bullet and do it.”

There has also been investment in housing to enhance cow comfort and welfare, including constructing a new shed with cubicle places with deep sand bedding.

In terms of cow comfort, Harri rates sand as ‘number one’, but admits it can make slurry management tricky. That aside, he doesn’t think you can get better than sand for cows to lie on.

Increasing average milk yield

Switching to a fully-housed system four years ago has helped to increase average milk yield to 9,800 litres a cow in the all-year round calving herd, and that volume is increasing.

This is because the system offers greater consistency, says Harri.

“The weather is so variable that intakes were down when we were grazing and the grass was wet, we have heavy land too so we could lose two months’ grazing.

“Having the silage in the bunker gives us more control of things and that consistency is driving yield.

“We don’t have a great grazing platform so we opted to improve the infrastructure and push for more yield.”

Genetics

Genetics is also a ‘massive advantage’ in helping the business breed profitable cows, he adds.

“We are very much into genetic gain and genomic testing – my grandfather has a good eye for breeding but now we have technology that can help us push forward further, moving forward it will play a key factor in what we do here.”

Breeding plans are drawn up to produce high performing, profitable cows.

The high cost of getting a heifer to her first lactation means every cow in the herd has to pay her way.

“Costs are rising and farmers need to be armed with the knowledge of knowing that the cows they are keeping are paying for themselves,” says Harri.

Sires are selected accordingly and genomic testing is carried out on a selection of heifers.

Heifer age at first calving averages 25 months. Although there is a lot of emphasis on calving heifers early, Harri likes to see cows strength.

“We are trying to breed a medium size cow that will last, a cow that is so trouble free that you don’t really know you have her but one that thrives.”

High quality silage

A focus on producing high quality silage from four cuts, with the first harvest in the first week of May, is also helping to drive production.

The herd is on track to be yielding an average of 10,500 litres this year – milk is sold to Muller.

Although dairy cows are the principal enterprise, the family has some breeding ewes too.

Breeding ewes

Harri and his wife, Hannah, have pedigree Dutch Spotted sheep and Texels and his parents a flock of pedigree Lleyns.

Embryos are flushed and implanted into recipients and the ram lambs sold at breed sales in the autumn.

Harri and Hannah, whose family also have a dairy farm in Pembrokeshire, have a 16-month-old son, Angus.

Despite his age, Harri predicts that he will be the sixth generation of the family to make a living from dairy farming.

“He absolutely loves the farm, his first words were ‘moo’, ‘baa’ and ‘tractor’.”

At the other end of the age spectrum, at 76, Russell and Myfanwy are still active on the farm and in charge of feeding the calves.

Support

“They have been a tremendous support to me, from the moment I came home to farm and before that, even with some of my crazy ideas, they have never batted an eyelid,” says Harri.

At 26 he says he still has a lot to learn but relishes the challenge of improving the system further.

“There are still lots of improvements we have to make but in general I am very happy with how we are doing things.”

Working together as a team, the family, their four full time staff, one part-timer and others such as the farm vet and nutritionist, has been integral is helping the business to progress.

Pitching in

When there are big decisions to be made, everyone in the family pitches in.

“It is important that everyone’s opinion is heard, it makes us stronger as a business,” says Harri, who has a younger sister Branwen who is studying at Lancaster University, and brother Aneurin, who works on a beef farm in Hereford.

Although he avoids dwelling on the negatives, the new Nitrate Vulnerable Zone regulations and what they mean in terms of investment for the family business and other Welsh farms does occupy his mind.

“A lot of farmers are concerned and worried about it, but there is not a lot of help out there.

“NVZ is really going to test a lot of dairy farms, whether they can afford to continue.”

When he is not busy on the farm Harri plays rugby for Crymych RFC 2nd XV, training once a week before the weekend match.

That time away from the farm is important. “Most of the boys I play with are farmers. If you’ve had a tough week, going out and seeing your mates and chasing a ball around really does help with a re-set.”