Proudly flying the flag for Wales and farming

A Welsh flag flies at the top of a straight drive that dips down across a meadow and in to Great Trerhew Farm, the place that became a household name in March this year as host to the BBC2 reality show Lambing Live.

Despite this celebrity, the Bevan family – hosts Jim and Kate who run the business with parents Trevor and Anne and brother Huw – remain very down to earth.

“We’ve three generations here including the children, a typical family farm,” says Jim Bevan.

A 66 hectare (165acre) lowland sheep farm at heart with 550 ewes near Abergavenny, it is partnered with a 80ha (200acre) hill unit three miles away at Skirrid where 350 Texel cross ewes and 70 Belgian Blue cross Friesian suckler cows graze land rising from 600-1,000 ft above sea level.

“Aside from the ewes and cattle we finish pigs for a butchers shop venture run by my brother and his wife, Jan,” explains Mr Bevan, familiar to a non-farming public with his distinctive beard.

“Mum and Dad live across the yard and run a bed and breakfast popular with walkers following Offa’s Dyke,”

Despite being the envy of many sheep farmers for having TV rural reporter Kate Humble at his side during the BBC program, his own wife Kate is very much hands-on, aided by a background in veterinary nursing and an interest in conservation.

But what got them involved with BBC? “It came about through someone we knew. Originally when the BBC approached us, we were one of 80 farms being looked at as possible hosts,” says Mrs Bevan.

“At first we thought it was to be a fly-on-the-wall look at farming and were cautious. When told it was to promote farming to the wider public we thought, great. Still, it was nerve-wracking.”

Critical to the programme’s airing, the main ewe flock begins lambing in late January with ewe lambs bringing an eventual end in May, says Mr Bevan.

“We couldn’t guarantee the BBC that any lambs would be born at all during the hour-long live broadcast – fortunately they were – but lambing does go on for too long here.”

Tupped early

As a result, plans for 2011 will see April-lambing Welsh ewes cut. Ewe-lambs will be tupped earlier to compact activity to February and March.

The aim remains to market hoggs at the start of the calendar year and 30-40 newborn lambs weekly where numbers allow moving through summer and into winter. “It provides vital cash-flow,” says Mr Bevan.

Although most lambs are sold through Abergavenny mart, others are prepared for the family-run shop, leased off a local council.

“Over time, we want to put more through with internet sales of boxed lamb helping lift numbers.

“Now, we have a beast a fortnight, six lambs weekly and four or five pigs going in there with Huw and Jan doing the butchering and retail work. I take my hat off to him as he’s pretty much self-taught.”

Lambs are traditionally finished off grass at 40-45kg liveweight with Texel genetics predominating.

“When farmers were getting £70/head this spring for a 30kg lambs at eight-weeks-old, perhaps we should have had more away. Personally, I like them to have their time.

“Our February-born lambs were hit hard by the cold spring and the March-born lambs overtook them in growth,” he says. That may require more lambs to be fed cake at weaning to achieve marketable weights by sale in August.

Grass growth has been patchy at Great Trerhew and Mr Bevan says it is a good job lowland ewes can manage on little more than ‘stream water and air’ in certain months. Little rainfall in June and July has seen grass growth fall sharply. “If it’s growing at all” says Mr Bevan.

“Overall, yields would be down 20 per cent on the year. But we still have 16ha (40 acres) of clover leys to mow.”

Grazing will be supplemented this winter by root crops comprising 2.4ha swede (6 acres) and 4ha (10 acres) fodder beet. “We grew maize last year but not this and we might be short on grub.

“Huw has been out and bought some thrashed ryegrass (seed head removed), which will help. “We’ll also miss not growing a small area of cereal, not so much for the grain, which has come down in price, but for the straw that has gone up.”

Predominately, fodder and straw is round-baled for ease of handling using fore-end loaders rather than hand carting small bales.

The two units share three tractors, two fitted with loaders and what he calls a ‘floater’ that goes between wherever it’s needed.

“We’ve updated a tractor recently to keep up with (residual) values. When Dad started farming, you could buy a tractor for the price of 100 lambs, unlike today.”

But investment on-farm pales into comparison when looking at that needed to broadcast Lambing Live, says Mrs Bevan.

“One of the trucks alone was said to be worth £5m and I think the combined total of equipment on the farm was said to be nearer £8m.”

Residence

At its peak, 76 staff took up residence during daytime filming but the physical impact was minimal. “At first it took a little getting used to, says Mrs Bevan.

“Everywhere you turned there was somebody doing something. Not one person smoked or dropped litter or anything like that during the entire filming. They were no trouble at all.”

Mostly, the Bevans were hands-on with lambing observed by a solitary cameraman and sound recorder between the main filming sessions.

“I got used to it, really, having the camera there and the lambing shed’s never been so well lit,” says Mrs Bevan.

Farming gets a bad press generally but its proof that we as farmers can do something about that

Kate Bevan

BBC presenters Adam Henson and Kate Humble fronted the show that lifted audience figures to 2.6m, according to media reports, during initial 8-9pm airings.

That may not compare to a quoted 16.6m viewers for a climax of an EastEnders’ storyline but it gave UK Farming significant airtime.

“I think both of us were very nervous of the reaction it would have, particularly from farmers,” says Mr Bevan.

When the BBC’s on-site email forum kicked in – holed up in the farm’s bed and breakfast accommodation – the true depth of feeling became apparent, says Mrs Bevan. “The public really engaged with it, which was great.

“But when we saw some of the comments and started to get letters from farmers we breathed a huge sight of relief. There was a huge amount of support for the programme, it came across really well,” she says.

That became apparent in later weeks. Public reaction was very positive when out and about in town and visiting Cardiff to see Wales play rugby.

“We came out of the stadium into this massive throng of people and we could hear ‘We love Lambing Live’ being chanted. It made us realise how much impact it had.”

More programmes

As a result of the show’s success, the BBC is reported to be considering another on-farm programme to show farming to a disconnected public.

For their part the Bevans have added much-needed debate and information on UK farming albeit from a relatively small, but well-run, closely-knit family farm tucked away near the Brecon Beacons.

“And we want to continue to do that,” says Mrs Bevan. Having established farm walks, held open days, established a farmyard ‘classroom’ both believe there is a future in providing a link – educational or otherwise – between agriculture and its public.

“What has come out of it [Lambing Live] is how little the public know but how much they want to know. Farming gets a bad press generally but its proof that we, as farmers, can do something about that.”

With film crews departed, Mr Bevan continues tending a ewe flock that for one week in March became national property. Mrs Bevan juggles farm and family life around a asters degree in Environmental Conservation Management.

Like the standard at the top of the Great Trerhew’s drive, their future may be in flying the flag for a real national asset – the traditional family farm.

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