Yesterday the Minister for Natural Resources and Food, Alun Davies, made a decision that should benefit wildlife-friendly farmers.
By making as much money as possible available to support farmers that are helping to provide homes for nature, the minister made a decision that could maintain traditional farming methods, support rural communities and benefit nature in the wider countryside.
Brian and Sorcha Lewis farm Troedrhiwdrain farm a 580ha hill farm located in the Elan Valley, Powys. The couple have adopted wildlife-friendly farming because they feel responsibility as stewards of the countryside for future generations and understand that wildlife-friendly farming can be useful for marketing produce.
Brian and Sorcha were the Welsh winners of the 2013 Nature of Farming Award, below they give their thoughts on the benefits of Agri-environment schemes.
We are looking to go into Glastir Entry and Glastir Advanced next year and have been in the scheme called Tir Gofal for the past 10 years, we felt it was a very good scheme with access to advice from an officer who knew your farm well. That scheme was pretty balanced; with a focus on the business of farming and the managing/increasing wildlife biodiversity on the farm. However, we feel there should be more assistance with continuity of management, as well as encouraging the new, rewarding what you are already managing.
Living in an upland area we are pretty much dependent on agri-environment schemes for financial assistance; hill farming is a hard way of life dealing with the elements, shorter growing seasons, one hay crop if weather is kind, harsher environment for the stock as well as for the farmer. We believe the sheep produced are excellent, though lambs are often slow growing.
But we do realise that our work offers other more hidden benefits such as managing the landscape you see today which encourages 400,000 visitors a year into the Elan Valley, where we farm. We manage our farm to improve and maintain our wildlife (the farm is home to many species iconic to Wales and many rare habitats), we facilitate carbon storage, water quality and flood alleviation, and we are also part of a close community who still maintain a lifestyle tied to the land.
The benefit of an agri scheme is it helps to support our way of life and allows it to carry on for future generations, which will prevent the hill cottages becoming vacant and falling into ruin in some of the remote parts of Wales. We are proud of this way of life and are pleased to provide a service which protects and enhances the landscape as well as maintains the traditional farming which has been undertaken for generations here.
There is sometimes little room to diversify on some of these remote hillside farms and this limits the capability of assisting with the farm income and in some areas incomes have decreased notably. Where possible farms will try and complement the income coming in by other means. We have no capability to improve areas and are tied by the management agreement for our farm, as we are located in a sensitive area, though we do not find this a restriction as it does fall easily within with our way of traditional farm life passed on through the generations.
We think it is beneficial to highlight the good work farming can offer to the nation and there is a need to encourage marketing of the importance of the products and benefits we produce. We think Cumbria have been successful in creating an identity through the Herdwick sheep and the beautiful landscape.
Wales has much the same to offer.