The future of Ioan Humphreys’s family farm was in the balance after his father fell ill and was forced to sell half the farm’s stock of beef and sheep.

In order to give Felin Newydd farm near Carno a more certain future and to keep the family together, Ioan invested £1 million in a state-of-the art chicken shed and for several months now has kept 32,000 free range hens in a new site called ‘Nant yr Ieir’.

Ioan, who is aged 28, shares his reasons for starting the business during such a difficult year with TV presenter Alun Elidyr in S4C farming programme Ffermio on Monday, January 18.

“That’s why I’ve done it really,” Ioan said. “It has been such a difficult year – I had to do something. In the situation that we’re in at the moment, nobody knows what is going to happen. I feel that the chicken shed gives us a bit of certainty and secures the future of the family and the farm.”

“Some eight years ago Dad fell ill, and we had halved the number of stock on the farm, so we were just ticking over, really – but it wasn’t sustainable. So, I thought investing in hens would help us and make things better.”

Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of chicken farms, especially in Powys. So, after visiting several chicken sheds and doing a lot of research, Ioan decided – with the support of his parents – to go for it.

Ioan has spent more than a million pounds on the venture doing the groundworks, building the shed and putting up fencing over 40 acres of land in order to keep his stock safe.

“I decided to go for a top of the range system – the ‘Big Dutchman’. I have made the shed a bit bigger so that the hens have more space to move around. The doors open at 7.30 in the morning and are kept open until it gets dark, so they can do what they want.”

Ioan admits that his business venture has given him a few sleepless nights and that the process was quite stressful at times. But things have turned out much better than Ioan expected and now provides work for his sister Elliw and her partner.

Around 30,000 eggs are produced every day which go to supermarkets and other places. Ioan also donates eggs to the local Salvation Army in Newtown.

Ioan describes his first year in his new business as ‘amazing’ and the successful young businessman is looking forward to a successful future.

Ioan Humphreys and Nant yr Ieir will feature in the next episode of Ffermio, which has English subtitles avaialble, at 9pm on Monday, January 18.