Plans are progressing for Welsh Sheep 2021, to be held in Mid Wales on 18th May. The biennial event is always an important feature of the sheep farming calendar and organisers feel next year’s will be particularly welcome, following the challenges of Covid 19 and Brexit.

The hosts are Huw and Sioned Owen, with their son, Dafydd. They run Red House Farm, Aberhafesp, just a five minute drive from Newtown and easily accessible from all parts of Wales, the Borders and beyond.

Huw says: “We’re all looking forward to it. God willing, it will be one of the first events of the season.

“Hopefully there will be a lot of people wanting to attend. We’ll throw ourselves into it all and show people how we do things. It’s a working farm, we are a working stock farm.

“I like to think we do our best to do everything to a certain level. We have a lot of fun and we top the market regularly. We have Texel x Mule ewes predominantly, put to Texel and Beltex rams.

“This year we’ve had a bit of a change and gone back to a SuffolkxMule ewe and then we will cross them with a Beltex and a Texel ram. We’ve been having good fun with the Beltex and Texel cross lambs, topping the market regularly in Welshpool, Rhayader and Oswestry.

“The emphasis here in Redhouse is on good quality, top quality prime lamb and the same with the cattle. We want people to know us for what we are producing.”

Red House extends to 550 acres and rises to 855 feet above sea level, with sweeping views down to the Severn Valley. Huw’s father, Bryn Owen of Sandilands Farm, Tywyn, bought the former dairy farm in 2013 for the family, who also run a Caravan Park and farming business in Tywyn. The farm is now owned by Huw, together with his brother Geraint and sisters Sian and Bethan.

Sioned stresses that the farm is very much a team effort, with each helping out where necessary. And they have confidence in good quality sheep production, whatever the outcome of Brexit and the difficulties surrounding the Covid pandemic.

Huw, Sioned and Dafydd run 1200 Texel cross ewes, together with a few Welsh Mules and a hundred pure Texels and 120 Limousin suckler cows, the majority registered. Dafydd who is 22 and who studied at Glynllifon College and Llysfasi College, has his own flock of Beltex ewes. There is also a full time member of staff.

Welsh Sheep organiser Helen Roberts says: “I am looking forward to working with the Owen family and admire their enthusiasm and forward thinking in what could be turbulent times for farming as a whole.

“I am grateful to welcome Hybu Cig Cymru as a Major sponsor at the event along with Shearwell Data and Beltex Sheep Society as Mainline sponsors. Other mainline sponsorship opportunities are available along with other packages and more details of these and how to book a stand will be available on the website.”

https://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/welshsheep/