Bernard Llywelyn farms at Carreg Cennen, Llandeilo, the family
having diversified and made the most of the outstanding
natural assets.
He spoke of the breeds of cattle that were kept on the
family farm when he was growing up in South Pembrokeshire in
the 1950s:
"It was a very conventional, primarily
dairy farm, we had Shorthorn and, in latter days, Friesian
cows, something, in fact, that I got very interested in, certainly
after going to Young Farmers; did a lot of stock judging, represented
Wales in both the Royal Highland Show and in the Dairy Event,
or the Dairy Show as it was called then, in London.
"So, in my own way, certainly after going to college, I tried
to influence the sort of animals that were at home fairly
dramatically. At that time it was really the influence of Canada – Canadian
blood, Holstein blood, was starting to come into the country,
and I went on an exchange to Canada with the Young Farmers
and came back being totally convinced that - as a lot of gullible
young people do - that that was the answer to all our problems."
He also spoke of the importance to farmers of marketing their
produce:
"The great weakness of agriculture (is that) they are the
only industry that have concerned themselves solely with producing
food. There is no other industry anywhere in the world that
has gone on producing something without giving a certain amount
of thought to marketing. And I think it is something that 21st
century Welsh agriculture has suddenly woken up to, and probably
not before time."
He went on to give his opinion of the importance of the environment
to the future of farming:
"The environment will be paramount to
the success of any farming business from now on because really
it's really the only bit of muscle that we have. People are
probably more willing to pay for the environment than they
are to pay for food, certainly more willing than they are to
pay for home-produced food. It's a thing that we have to be
very careful with because I think what a lot of people forget
is that the environment that we see now is not natural at all,
it's actually been created, by my father, my grandfather, my
great grandfather and so on. All that we see from here is virtually
man made. And it's the way in which it's been done. In the
past it was done because agriculture was quite prosperous.
I suspect that in the future it will be done because that's
the way the government policy will dictate that it will be
done and there will obviously be a certain amount of support
for farming in an environmentally friendly way."
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