The award, which this year celebrates its 26th year, seeks to champion the contribution that woman make to the agricultural industry and to raise the profile of women in farming.
More about Meinir
Having grown on up her family’s beef and sheep farm, Meinir took her inspiration from her mother, Doris, who worked full time on the farm. Despite making sure her daughter had other options and encouraging her to go to Aberystwyth University to study Welsh alongside film and TV, Meinir always knew farming was in her blood and that one day she would farm herself.
Meinir is a hard-working, hands-on farmer. Along with her husband Gary, they run a predominately pedigree flock as well as some commercials, producing around 130 yearling breeding rams a year. They also have a herd of beef heifers, which they rear, calve and then sell on, a commercial suckler herd and a pedigree Aberdeen Angus herd, as well as 12 Shetland ponies and a pig.
Sheep breeds
The couple, who have two young children, Sioned, aged eight and Dafydd six, also keep Pedigree Texel ewes, Suffolks, Charolais, Beltex, Blueface and Balwens. These are now sold mostly from home and through Meinir’s social media marketing they have sold tups to Argyle, Scotland, Devon and even Estonia. She has just finished her second stint as Chairperson of the Balwen Society, after starting her flock as a child, Meinir has previously won the Royal Welsh Championship as well as being Smallholders Champion a number of times.
Meinir has been the driving force behind the couple’s successful on-farm sales, holding them at home for the past four years. As part of these sales, they held an NFU Cymru open day and farm tour, a tractor run and a number of concerts, raising money for a number of charities including Breast Cancer Wales, Tir Dewi, Prostate Cancer, Wales Air Ambulance and Diabetes Cymru. Over £50,000 has been raised to date.
Meeting climate and environment goals
In order to meet their climate and environment goals, Meinir and Gary have ensured the farm has double fenced 4,000m of hedges, planted around 11,000 trees in hedgerows, fencing off rough land and leaving it for nature to thrive. They also now have 15 bee hives on the farm and Meinir sells the honey within the local community.
Off farm, Meinir works part time as a TV presenter, mainly focusing on agricultural programmes, where she aims to show the hard work, dedication and passion of farmers from all over Wales. She presents from the Royal Welsh Show for the live S4C coverage and is a regular on S4C’s Ffermio. The Howell’s family also feature in a programme on S4C called Teulu Shadog: Blwyddyn ar y Fferm (The Shadog Family: A year on the farm). This programme shows the ups and downs and the reality of farming and has just been renewed for a fourth series.
Educating the next generation
Meinir is a regular at local schools, educating the next generation of consumers and farmers about where their food comes from. She also held an open day for a local school on-farm, where they welcomed hundreds of primary school children to Shadog to get an insight of what life on a Carmarthenshire farm is really like. She also works closely with local YFC clubs to teach stock judging, public speaking and has judged a number of competitions over the years.
NFU Cymru Deputy President and judge of the award Abi Reader said: “We are delighted to announce Meinir as the winner of the 26th Wales Woman Farmer of the Year Award. Meinir is a strong advocate for safeguarding the future of Welsh agriculture, whether that be through the production of top-quality livestock on the farm, her work off farm as an agricultural TV presenter, or her work with local schools and the YFC. Her passion for the industry was clear to see and she believes that agriculture plays a central role in preserving and enhancing biodiversity and the ecosystems, as well as producing high quality food.
Innovative ideas
“Meinir clearly has innovative ideas of how to take the farming message to the masses and is a real driving force behind the success of Shadog. After visiting her farm, it was clear she is a very worthy winner of the Wales Woman Farmer of the Year award.”
Fellow judge Heather Holgate representing award sponsors NFU Mutual in her role as NFU Cymru / NFU Mutual Group Secretary in Tregaron, added: “It has been a pleasure to help judge the NFU Cymru/NFU Mutual Wales Woman Farmer of the Year Award and see for myself the huge depth of talent we have among women in Welsh agriculture. The standard of the applications was exceptionally high, which made our role as judges enjoyable and challenging in equal measure.
“However, both Abi and I were in agreement that Meinir was the pick of the entries for this year’s award. Her passion and dedication to the industry, not only in taking care of her stock and the environment, but also her attitude towards educating others about where their food comes from and how it is produced shone through during our visit to her farm. She is a truly fantastic advocate for our industry.”
Meinir was presented with a Welsh crystal engraved bowl and £500 prize money to mark her achievement.