Nantymoel sheep farmer named Wales Lady Farmer of the Yr

Katie Rose-Davies, a third-generation hill sheep farmer from Nantymoel, close to Bridgen, has been named because the twenty fifth winner of the Wales Lady Farmer of the Yr Award.

She has been introduced with a Welsh crystal engraved bowl and £500 prize cash to mark her achievement.

Rose-Davies’ household has been farming within the Ogmore Valley for over 90 years, and she or he has been a companion within the enterprise since 2015. She can also be a mom of three and a Lecturer in Agriculture at Bridgend School.

She can also be joint secretary of Glamorgan Farmers Membership and is a part of a Farm Pictures Membership which feeds right into a PhD Mission at Gloucester College how the UK livestock business is reacting to present local weather change discourse. 

Rose-Davies has hosted numerous farm visits together with the Minister for Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths and the Vice Premier of China, the place she showcased Welsh beef and lamb.

Following this she was recognized as a pacesetter in environmental farming practices and met with the then Prince of Wales, to debate sustainable farming practices.

She additionally just lately hosted a farm go to for Nantymoel Main Faculty with almost 200 pupils attending to find out about meals, farming and the atmosphere.

She has since organized for the Cows on Tour group to go to the varsity and has agreed to make this an annual occasion, displaying how passionate she is in regards to the business and educating younger individuals.

Decide Lona Davies, representing award sponsors the Nationwide Farmers’ Union, stated that whereas all entries have been robust, the judges have been in settlement that Katie was “the choose of the entries for this yr’s award”.

“Her ardour and dedication to the business, not solely in taking good care of her inventory and the atmosphere, but in addition her angle in direction of educating kids about the place their meals comes from, shone by way of throughout our go to to her farm.

“Together with working off-farm educating college students about agriculture and operating the farm along with her husband Trystan and her mother and father, she additionally raises three younger youngsters and is a very unbelievable advocate for our business,” she stated.

An Agri-Academy Graduate from the Rural Management Programme, Rose-Davies was additionally a Younger Ambassador for the Welsh Black Cattle Society in 2010, HCC Livestock Scholarship finalist in 2011, Wales Younger Farmers’ Membership (YFC) Stockperson of the Yr in 2008 and was an Agriscop Chief for 2014 – 2015.

‘Worthy’ Wales Lady Farmer of the Yr

NFU Cymru deputy president and choose of the award, Abi Reader added: “Katie is a robust advocate for safeguarding the way forward for Welsh agriculture, Welsh heritage and tradition and believes training performs a key function in selling the unbelievable work farmers do in producing secure, wholesome and sustainable meals.

“She endeavours to look past the farmgate and embrace a brand new, and maybe completely different, strategy to her enterprise and embodies every thing we search for in a winner of this award.

“Katie believes that the business wants one of the best people who find themselves in a position to deal with the numerous challenges that face our business, and after visiting her farm it was clear she is a really worthy winner of the Wales Lady Farmer of the Yr award.”

Katie is chargeable for devloping the house enterprise and making certain its viability, which she does although steady skilled improvement, benchmarking and attending numerous workshops.

As a part of a brand new advertising and marketing technique she developed the ‘Bwlch Mountain Lamb’ model in 2019 and began advertising and marketing their merchandise by way of field schemes.

She additionally works to make sure the farm operates in a sustainable method, by utilizing strategies like hefting and the slicing of molinia to encourage floor nesting birds.

The farm participates within the Glastir scheme which has enabled it to put money into capital works equivalent to rebuilding dry stone partitions, sheepfolds and preserving South Wales Mountain ewes, that are indigenous to the world and play an intrinsic half within the heritage and tradition of the South Wales Valleys.