News Archive 2003
Gwenfair is new Welsh Black president
Bala farmer, Mrs Gwenfair Jones took over as president of the Welsh Black Cattle Society when members gathered at Thame in Oxfordshire, for their 2003 annual meeting.
Together with her sons Meredydd and Gwilym, Mrs Jones farms some 760 acres on four adjacent farms, run as a single unit. The home farm at Hafod yr Esgob is rented off the Rhiwlas Estate and has been home for her family for many generations. The other three farms are owned.
All the land is with the LFA with some Grade 3 land being the best on the farms. Rainfall is heavy at 80-90in annually with the land rising from 1000ft to 1250ft at the highest point.
Beef production is based on 60 Welsh Black pedigree breeding cows with 10 to 12 in calf heifers retained annually as replacements All calves are registered as pedigree.
The farm also carries a flock of 1000 hill ewes. The 300 on the highest farm are pure Welsh Mountain, while half the remaining ewes have been crossed with the North Country Cheviot and half of them put to a Texel to produce a stronger more commercial ewe.
She takes over from Oxfordshire smallholder, Les Preston, who has played a key role in the development of the breed in England.
Looking ahead to 2004, the Society’s centenary year, the meeting chose farmer and Welsh television broadcaster, Dai Jones of Llanilar, Aberystwyth as its president-elect.
The meeting also awarded life membership of the Society to Miss Beryl Jones of Ruthin, Denbighshire and to Mr Emlyn Ellis of Bryncrug, Tywyn, Merionethshire for their services to the Welsh Black breed and to the Welsh Black Cattle Society.
Financially the Society recorded an operating surplus of £7,156 on the year to December 31 2002.