Although Gwern Thomas didn’t grow up in a farming family, he joined Felinfach YFC in Ceredigion at 11, with a plumbing career in the pipeline. Fourteen years later, Gwern’s plumbing days are over, and he now manages a 450-acre beef and sheep farm.
Growing up in the small rural village of Ciliau Aeron near Felinfach, Gwern was surrounded by beautiful Welsh countryside and farmland.
Gwern’s immediate family were not directly involved in agriculture, but he took an early interest in small holdings owned by his grandmother and uncle.
He joined YFC at 11, and spent a lot of time on farms growing up as many of his friends were farmers.
“I knew I wanted to go into farming,” said Gwern. “But weirdly I left school at 16 to be a plumber.”
Despite his decision to learn a trade, farming still followed him. In his YFC, agriculture was often the topic of conversation, and he spent his spare time looking after a flock of sheep on his grandmother’s farm. Even as a qualified plumber he would help on his boss’ small holding too.
“That was probably worse because I was lambing for him as well and I properly got the bug there and that was it really,” admitted Gwern, who quit plumbing after Covid.
Furloughed from his plumbing job during lockdown, he approached a local dairy farm, whose owners he knew through YFC, about working for them. He took on a full-time role and learnt as much as he could.
After 18-months, he spent two years milking sheep as part of a share farming agreement before moving to where he is now, running his uncle’s beef and sheep farm.
“Farming is going well at the moment,’ said Gwern about the agreement he has with his uncle. “The more farming events I go to the more complicated I realise succession is for some people. I know friends of mine who left school to be farmers and work at home now and have less say than I do on farming practices at home.”
That’s not to say that Gwern hasn’t felt disgruntled at times by the lack of direct inheritance.
“I could go around moaning about how I haven’t been left a farm but I have realised I am quite lucky in other ways.”
Despite his lack of farming background, Gwern has found YFC to be supportive of his career choice. “I have always been accepted and encouraged as a farmer by YFC. In fact I am probably one of the only members of the club at the moment who is a farmer as the sons and daughters of farming families have pursued different careers.”
And he has taken advantage of the experiences YFC offers to further his skills and broaden his mindset about agriculture. In August he travelled to Australia as part of a YFC Travel trip organised with a rural youth group in Western Australia called AgConnectWA to learn more about farming practices down under.
“The scale of it was phenomenal,” said Gwern about the huge farms he explored while staying with six different families. “The amount of chemicals they use was scary but the farms were on a huge scale. Everyone tells you it’s massive and I knew it was going to be big, but wow, it was huge!
“I could never work over there. Even though they said they had a community out there, I struggled to find it because it was so vast. I think it’s tough when you’re a Welsh speaker, the community is very close here in Felinfach, so it was probably tougher for me in that respect as well.”
Despite the different farming methods, Gwern admitted the trip had challenged his thinking on issues around wool and water.
“The quality of Merino wool in Australia was phenomenal. I couldn’t believe it. They were getting £11 a kilo for it but I could see how good the quality is.”
Struggles with the lack of rainfall in Australia were also worlds apart from Gwern’s water difficulties in the UK.
“In Australia they were worried they were not going to get enough rain this winter to last them the summer. I knew it was dry, but I never really thought about how dry it does get. They couldn’t understand what issues we had as we get so much rain and have plenty of grass. The only way I could explain it was that we have a wet drought, we have enough grass to graze but it’s too wet to graze it. They couldn’t even imagine it.”
Despite the persistent rain, Gwern is happy farming in Felinfach and plans to take time off from travelling to save for his forthcoming wedding.
He dreams of one day having enough capital to purchase his own farm and believes YFC will always offer support in his endeavours.
“YFC has definitely helped with my farming plans and it always will. The people I have met I will be friends for life with them through YFC – that’s if they’re local or even if I have met them on the other side of the world. YFC more than directly helps me with my goals as a farmer, it probably supports me with my goals as a person in general,” said Gwern who regularly takes part in competitions and social activities with his club and county.
He hopes to raise native breeds, believing they can produce quality meat with minimal input. Despite some concerns about the environmental impact of farming, he has already begun integrating regenerative farming practices into his uncle's farm.
As a new entrant, the lack of access to land and funds is a battle Gwern’s only too aware of but he says farming still triumphs over plumbing.
“When I was plumbing I really didn’t like my job, I didn’t want to get up in the morning and that’s horrible.
“Now I wake up every day of the week and I always want to get up. It’s amazing.”
