Hugh and Eluned and their eldest son, Dafydd, had been running a suckler-to-beef enterprise until 2015.

The change of direction followed Dafydd’s attendance at the NFU’s annual conference as a Next Generation Group delegate.

A dairy sector meeting at that conference confirmed what the family had thought for a considerable time.

“We had been discussing the change to milk as it seemed that however intense the suckler system the returns were not there,” says Hugh.

It marked a move back to milk production for Hugh, who grew up on a 200-cow dairy farm in Dorset.

He was one of three brothers and his father tried to discourage any of his sons from joining the familiy business - however, two did.

“My father encouraged me to go to university and find out about grass,” says Hugh.

He read agricultural economics at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth.

After graduating he worked for the Fatstock Marketing Corporation in London and in the south of England, and later became Group Secretary for the NFU Cymru/NFU Mutual in Welshpool.

Despite his father’s best efforts, Hugh’s interest in farming didn’t wane. “I would drive from Welshpool to Dorset on a Friday evening to milk the cows or bale straw behind a combine.”

He met and married Eluned, a school teacher and farmer’s daughter from Penmaen isa, Pennal, near Machynlleth.

The couple have four children – Dafydd, who is 30, Sioned, who works as a personal trainer, Heledd, a teacher in Lampeter, and Trystan, who recently graduated from Manchester University with a degree in aerospace engineering.

In 1988, a few months after they married, Eluned’s father suffered a stroke and, two years later, this resulted in them coming to farm Penmaen isa.

At that time the farm was supporting 14 suckler cows and 300 Welsh ewes; stock numbers were increased to 70 cows and 450 crossbred ewes.

After Dafydd came home to farm in 2012, the idea of establishing a dairy at Penmaen isa gained momentum. He had studied agriculture and countryside management at Aberystwyth and when he came home he was made a partner in the business.

“Penmaen isa was a small dairy farm when my father bought it, then it became beef and sheep, and now it is dairy again,” says Eluned, one of two sisters.

The decision to revert to milk production was made possible financially with the acquisition of two second-hand milking parlours – a 16/16 and a 12/12 - and a third, a 5/10, that came free with the bulk tank.

They dismantled the parlours and used parts from all of them to create a 16/16 herringbone parlour with automatic cluster removal at a total cost of £3,000.

“By the time we took the parlours out we knew how to put them back together again. When you have spent as much time in a milking parlour as I have, you know where things go,” says Hugh.

That wasn’t the only job they did themselves; they gutted an old cow stall and installed the milking parlour in its place. They then revamped all the remaining cattle sheds and fitted cubicle housing and feed bunkers.

“The only job we didn’t do was to install the bulk tank because we weren’t allowed to because it involved pressurised gas; we did all the building and electrical work,” Hugh explains.

The reason is simple: “I don’t like paying people to do things we can do ourselves!”

Before the family paid a penny to get the dairy business up and running they secured a milk contract with Hufenfa De Arfon.

As the business intended to run an autumn-calving herd securing a contract was straightforward, says Dafydd.

“We knew we wanted an autumn calving block because it gives more flexibility. The cows can come in as they calve in September.’’

But by the time they started milking in 2015, milk prices had plummeted, and initial milk sales commanded 15p a litre.

As a newly established dairy farmer, Dafydd still had the optimism he had felt back in 2014.

“It was OK because dairy cattle prices were modest,” he says.

Heifers were sourced from a farm in Denbighshire and cows were bought from several different places, while being mindful of bovine TB.

The breed they settled on was a Friesian x Holstein. “We wanted something milky with a bit of leg, a bit of shape to them, and some hybrid vigour,” says Hugh.

“Some purebred Holsteins are OK but I don’t think they last as long as a Friesian and we wanted cows with longevity.’’

At maturity, cows weigh an average of 500kg.

The herd was established with 60 cows and numbers have now increased to 80.

The first milk was sold in August 2015 and the cubicle sheds were completed by the end of September.

A 5kw wind turbine was previously erected in 2012 to supply some of the power needs of the farm.

At breeding, sexed semen from genomic bulls is used to breed replacements with synchronisation used to control oestrus in heifers.

“We don’t need proven bulls, all we are after are good protein levels,” says Hugh.

Protein averages 3.48% and butterfat 4.49%, with cows yielding an average of 6,300 litres from twice-a-day milking.

Aberdeen Angus beef sires are used once the number of replacements required has been satisfied – 26 are reared annually - and a Hereford stock bull is used to sweep up. Beef calves are sold to local private buyers from a week old.

The herd calves in a 16-week block from September. “We are trying to reduce the spread of the calving block but it isn’t easy to get cows to bull in the middle of winter with short days!” says Hugh.

“We do the best we can with regular vet checks to make sure they are all cycling and then scan cows 30 days after service.”

Heifers calve down at two years.

Calves suckle their dam for the first day before they are reared on transition cows’ milk followed by milk replacer and weaned at six weeks.

At up to 70 inches, the farm has a high annual rainfall average but cows are mostly turned out to graze in March by day only; they then remain at grass until housing in November, weather permitting.

Cows receive up to 7kg of concentrates in the parlour.

“We don’t feed TMR, we give the cows wheat and barley and let them mix it themselves,” says Hugh.

The 360-acre farm only grows grass – three cuts of silage are made annually - and there is a large expanse of salt marsh which the dry cows and heifers graze.

The decision to diversify into dairying is one the family is pleased they have taken and are confident they have a strong future in milk production, not least because they have an autumn production profile.

Hugh believes there needs to be a bigger price differential to reflect milk supply.

“The supply problem we had at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown would have happened anyway. There is a surplus of milk being produced in April and May and the processing capacity isn’t there,” he says.

“The only way to sort the job out is to increase payments for winter milk and level the UK milk production profile and so reduce the spring flush.”

With stunning views over the Dyfi estuary, the farm is in a prime location to develop a tourism business but the family insists that the holiday industry isn’t for them.

“Farming is what we do, we can do without tourists,” says Hugh. “Our job is looking after cows, we haven’t got time to do anything else.”

Well-meaning friends have suggested diversification into ice-cream production and the response is similar. “We are in a good position with a good milk buyer, I would rather support South Caernarfon Creameries because they are doing a consistently good job.”

First published in Farming Wales - August 2020