Farming Wales reporter Debbie James spoke with the current NFU Cymru/NFU Mutual Livestock Champion of the Year 2022 Award Winner about his journey and his hopes for the future...
Ernie Richards wasn’t born into farming, but he was born to farm. Childhood weekends and school holidays were spent on his maternal grandparents’ smallholding in Herefordshire where his interest in agriculture nurtured and developed. “I’d rush there straight from the school bus on a Friday, it was where I was the happiest,” Ernie recalls. “I think it was the lifestyle I loved more than anything, and the open space.” Those early years instilled a longing to farm that never left him.
Now aged 30, and with the NFU Cymru/ NFU Mutual Welsh Livestock Champion of the Year Award 2022 to his name, he never doubted that his career choice was the right one. “There is no other job like it,” he says.
With an impressive set of GCSE results, further education beckoned at Holme Lacy Agricultural College followed by an agriculture and animal science degree at Aberystwyth University. His university placement year saw him working on a mixed farm in Cumbria and a sheep farm in Canada. After graduating, he spent a harvest season on a mixed farm in Herefordshire and then took himself o to work on a beef and sheep station in New Zealand. He returned eight years ago and moved across the border to Wales after securing a job as a shepherd at Wernoog, a 350-acre upland sheep farm near Clyro, where he manages a flock of pedigree Lleyn ewes for Stuart and Helen Morris. Together they have made important gains in the performance and productivity of the 1,000-head closed flock.
Adaptable breed
Stuart and Helen’s allegiance to the breed is one that Ernie shares. “The Lleyn is really adaptable,” he says. “We farm at 1,300 feet and have an indoor lambing system but it is a breed that suits lowland farms and outdoor lambing too.” Longevity and a high lambing percentage are qualities that are synonymous with the Lleyn.
Breeding pure Lleyns also gives the business top quality prime lambs and allows it to breed the next generation of females. “No other breed can do both,” Ernie suggests. Lleyns are easy lambers and good mothers too, he adds.
Genetics are vital
Ewes winter on root crops, mostly swedes, before they are housed for up to four weeks before they lamb. This is a good fit for the farm’s reseeding policy with between 10-15 acres grown annually. Ewes and lambs are swiftly turned out to grass after lambing.
All ram lambs are kept entire and sold deadweight to Farmer Fresh Wales in Wrexham - carcasses average 21kg. Up to 350 yearling ewes are sold annually as breeding stock through private sales and at Lleyn Sheep Society sales. It is a high health status flock thanks to a comprehensive programme of vaccination; jabs are given for toxoplasmosis and enzootic abortion, for clostridial diseases and pasteurella, and for foot root and orf. “We were lucky enough to take part in a lameness trial with MSD and that has dramatically reduced the incidence of lameness,” says Ernie. Reliance on wormers has been reduced too thanks to faecal egg counting. There is a strict culling policy for ewes that experience problems at lambing, those with poor udders or persistent lameness.
In conjunction with health, soil and grassland management, Ernie sees genetics as vital for increasing production too; as such, they have been accepted onto the new Welsh Sheep Genetics Programme to start performance recording. “It is the next step for us, to use performance recording to select our breeding ewes,” he says.
Mutual respect
As well as being a stickler for detail in managing the flock, Ernie is also a consummate planner. It all starts with Sunday’s weather forecast which mostly sets the agenda for the week ahead. “I have a chat with Stuart and Helen about what they want to get done that week and we start to put a plan in place,” he says.
The relationship is one of mutual respect, with the odd disagreement thrown in to keep everyone on their toes. “It wouldn’t be natural to agree on everything. Improvements often come from challenging ideas and having points of difference,” Ernie believes. “I think we have struck a good balance because I’m still here after eight years!” The next step will see Ernie take a bigger role in the business.
This autumn he will move into the farmhouse with his partner, nursery worker Anna, and their children – they have a two-year-old son, Harry, and a newborn baby, Oliver – and Stuart and Helen will make their new home off the farm. This will put Ernie at the centre of the day-to-day management of the farm while allowing Stuart and Helen the opportunity to start to take a step back. Joint venture options, a profit-share perhaps, are also being explored, to further incentivise Ernie to keep driving the business forward and to give him a greater foothold in the industry. For a young farmer with ambition, it is an opportunity to build equity as he hopes to one day own his own flock.
Seizing opportunities
Ernie’s knowledge of agriculture has been honed by his willingness to seize every opportunity that has come his way. He secured a place on the Farming Connect Agri Academy’s Business & Innovation Programme where he increased his understanding of business management and financial matters. He has involved the business in several lamb performance trials, health monitoring schemes and promotional media activities too. He is also a member of a Farming Connect sheep discussion group and the HCC Meat Quality Project.
Sharing knowledge in an industry where farmers often work in isolation from others is vital, he says, something which he suggests is not always forthcoming. “Some farmers won’t tell their neighbour what they are doing because they are scared that the neighbour will do it better!” he laughs. “We’ve got to move away from that mindset.” Things are already moving in the right direction, he says. “I’m on several Whatsapp groups where we all share ideas and advice, to get better at what we do. I really value the support of others.”
Spreading the message
Ernie also sits on the NFU Cymru Next Generation Group where he helps to spread the message about farming and engages with the public. He values the friendships he has made through this forum and the opportunities it has given him to get involved in the industry off farm. He is also part of the LEAF Farmer Time Scheme, helping to bring the countryside to life for primary school pupils via regular video catch-ups.
YFC has played an important part in Ernie’s life. At 16 he joined Teme Valley YFC ‘to go to the dances’ but he was soon hooked on the competitions, honing his skills in public speaking and other talents and becoming county chairman for Herefordshire in 2020. At the recent county rally, he was heartened to see so many new members getting involved and their families there supporting them. Looking to the future, he sees good opportunities for that next generation of farmers.
“New entrants are the lifeblood of any vibrant industry, and farming is no exception,” he says. “It can be a difficult sector to get a foothold in for young people with no background in agriculture, but going forward I think we will see many more different ways to help make that happen.”
Livestock Award winner of the year
NFU Cymru and NFU Mutual are on the search for the ninth winner of their Livestock Champion of the Year Award.
The award seeks to spotlight dedicated, committed and enthusiastic livestock persons from all across Wales. Nominations are invited throughout Wales. Anyone is welcome to nominate a livestock farmer, farm worker, or themselves.
If you are interested in entering, or know someone who you think is worthy of a nomination for the title of Livestock Award Winner 2023, follow the link here.