Fair Deal For Farmers: Why farming matters in Shropshire and Mid Wales

Today, the Shropshire Star launches its Support Our Farmers campaign, which seeks to raise awareness of just how important farming is to Shropshire and Mid Wales.

To reinforce the point, we visited John and Sarah Yeomans' farm at Adfa, near the Welsh border town of Newtown, where the full picture of the role farming plays in our economy was made clear.

The Yeomans have been at Llwyn y Brain farm for more than 43 years, and today the site is home to almost 90 cows and just under 500 sheep.

Inside we explain how this one farm alone, which supplies top-quality lamb and beef both to retail suppliers and direct to the customers, directly supports 39 separate businesses. These range from suppliers of hi-tech electrical equipment to the garage that fits the tractor tyres.

Locally, the farm helps support 2,347 jobs, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Across the UK, the Yeomans help keep 225,980 people in employment – as well as a further 2,600 overseas.

But there have been difficult times during the past few years.

"After the snow in 2013 we lost a considerable amount of money," says Mr Yeomans, adding that cuts to the EU Single Farm Payment also had an impact.

"We knew we had to do something. We either had to look at ways of being more profitable, or give up; and we didn't want to do that. So we started to implement rotational grazing as a way of being more efficient and make use of every bit of grass and crop to optimise output."

While the Yeomans specialise in meat farming, they are only too aware that other areas of farming are suffering too. Dairy farmers in particular have been hit by low milk prices.

According to the Farmers' Union of Wales, the typical farmer works more than 60 hours a week for a household income of just £13,000 a year.

Glyn Roberts, president of the Farmers' Union of Wales, says the number of jobs supported by the Yeomans' farm show just how important agriculture was in Britain.

Echoing the words of former chancellor George Osborne, he is calling for an "agricultural powerhouse" in rural Britain.

"All of the businesses here make a real contribution to the British economy, and also play an important role in maintaining the surroundings that we live in," he says.

"If there were to be a future down turn in farming, that could be catastrophic for the whole area.

"We need to create an agricultural powerhouse in the rural areas, because a thriving agricultural sector benefits not just rural areas, but the length and breadth of the UK."

The Yeomans' farm has been in the family since 1973, when John's parents Albert and Thelma moved from Birmingham.

John says one of the biggest obstacles that farmers face is bureaucracy from within both the UK and Welsh governments.

"Sometimes it can cost us £950 because we have got the details wrong on a form," he says.

"Within the civil service and the Welsh government there are some really good people, it's important to say that, but sometimes it can be difficult."

Join our campaign – and highlight how you place the produce of Shropshire and Mid Wales in the shop window.

We have launched a directory of businesses that support our region's farmers - see it at shropshirestar.com/farmers

You might be a butcher, baker, deli or even a florist. You may run a restaurant, pub or cafe. Or you may sell your wares at fairs or farmers markets.

As long as you use produce made by farmers in our region, you can be included.

The Shropshire Star will create an online directory of businesses that support our farmers.

And we will send you a Fair Deal for Farmers window sticker that you can display to your customers.

It is easy to get involved:

Send an email to us at: newsroom@shropshirestar.co.uk

Write to: Fair Deal, Shropshire Star, Ketley, Telford TF1 5HU

We need to know your name, the name of your business and its address and how you support farmers – please also name farms you support and the produce you either sell or serve up.

Meet the 39 businesses that are connected by just one farm

1. City Electrical Factors, which has branches in Newtown and Welshpool, supplies electrical fittings, light bulbs and tools to the Yeoman's farm. The company employs 2,750 across the UK, including 11 at the two mid Wales branches headed by manager Darryl Owen."I feel it's very important to employ local people to serve local people," he says.

2. Genus ABS specialises in the artificial insemination of cows, and has been trading since 1947. The company, which has a base in Welshpool, helps the Yeomans with their cattle breeding, supplying bull semen to introduce new bloodlines and improve traits, and also helping with artificial insemination.

Globally the company employs 2,600 staff in 70 countries, with 700 of these being based in the UK. At Welshpool, the team consists of 14 artificial insemination technicians, two sales staff, and manager Delwyn Jones.

3. H V Bowen & Sons supplies the Yeomans with concrete, stone and quarry products, and has been serving the agricultural sector in mid Wales for more than a century. The company's Mark Bowen says: "We employ over 30 people all from the local area. "When agriculture is thriving most other business in the area benefit as a large percentage of their profit is pumped back into the economy via new machinery or new buildings."

4. Trefaldwyn Vets has been taking care of the animals at the Yeomans' farm since the beginning. "They are an essential part of our business, providing essential animal health products, advice and treatment of our livestock," says John Yeomans.

5. E George & Son is an independent family-run agricultural merchants, and supplies the Yeomans with, among other things, products which help their cattle look their best at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair.

Les George says agriculture is the key industry to a thriving economy. "It is vitally important that all sectors of agriculture throughout the mid Wales area and further afield are given the appropriate backing it deserves as it is the key industry with many individuals, societies, organisations and businesses relying totally on its prosperity."

6. HSBC handles the farm's banking needs, and John says a good relationship with the bank is particularly important during tough financial times. The bank's global financial services division provides services specially aimed at the farming community, and employs six people at its commercial banking centre in Newtown, and a further 30 in north and mid Wales.

7. Brightwells auctioneers and valuers was formed in 1853 and, among other things, holds regular livestock auctions. The company has offices in Leominster, Builth Wells and Hereford. The Yeomans use its services when buying and selling Beulah breeding rams. In the livestock market Brightwells employs four full-time staff and about 15 part-time staff.

8. The Yeomans buy their diesel from Banwy Fuel, which was established in 1974 by David and Sally Edwards, who started out by selling coal. Today the company is run by their son Chris, and has extended its range to sell oil and bottled gas, animal feeds and biomass wood pellets from its base at Llangyniew, near Welshpool where it employs 16 full-time and four part-time staff.

9. Machynlleth-based Major and Evans provides accountancy services to the Yeomans. The business, which has been going for 25 years, employs 11 including partners Wyn Evans and Ken Major.

"Our accountants, I guess like all the other companies and individuals we trade with, are an essential part of our business," says John.

10. Elanco Animal Health is a part of the US company Eli Lilly, and provides products centred on the health and well-being of animals, including anti-bacterials and medications, as well as dermatology and surgical products.

John says the farm has been working with Elanco's James Cheadle for some time on trial work to improve the health of his beef herd.

11. AgriAdvisor provides the Yeomans with advice about legal and land use matters. The legal firm, headed by Nerys Llewelyn Jones,

was established five years ago in Pumsaint, as part of a farm which was seeking to diversify. It now has a second office in Welshpool. At the moment it employs 18 staff, but is looking to recruit more.

12. The Yeomans have been dealing with Mike Evans from Bibby's Agriculture for many years, both for nutritional advice and the purchase of sheep and cattle feed. Bibby's is a long-established supplier of animal feeds in Wales, and employs 22 people directly, and supports a further 60 jobs among its suppliers.

13. The farm purchases its sheep marker sprays from A P Supplies, a small agricultural merchant run by Andrew and Maria Petch, which has been in business since 1992. The company, which is based in the East Riding of Yorkshire, serves farmers across the whole of the UK.

14. Opico is Britain's largest independent distributor of agricultural machinery, having supplied farmers for five decades. The Yeomans have been working with Nick Rider, Opico's territory manager for the West Midlands and Wales, since the 1990s, doing some minimal tillage trial work, and has also bought a harrow from the company.

Opico employs 30 people across the UK, and supports an extensive dealer network.

15. Welshpool Livestock Sales operates the largest farm lamb auction market in western Europe, and is jointly owned by Morris Marshall & Poole and Norman Lloyd. It employs eight full-time staff and about 55 part-time clerical and drover staff who work on large sale days.

16. In addition, Morris Marshall & Poole, which part-owns Welshpool Livestock Sales, employs 48 employees and eight partners. They are based at seven offices across Shropshire and Wales, including ones at Newtown, Oswestry and Welshpool.

17. Zoetis is the world's largest producer of medicine and vaccinations for pets and livestock. At the moment the farm is working with Zoetis along with many other farms throughout the UK on trial work aimed at reducing the use sheep wormers while improving animal health. The American giant employs 35 staff in the UK, with six of these working in the field around Shropshire and mid Wales.

18. Kiwikit, which specialises in electric fencing, identification tags and the weighing of animals, employs 14 people at its base in Ludlow. It supplies the Yeomans with solar-powered electric fencing, which has allowed them to make better use of their grass by controlling sheep's grazing.

19. The Yeomans have been recycling their waste with Birch Farm Plastic since the late 1990s. The company employs 10 people collecting agricultural polythene from farmers for recycling and has been trading for more than 25 years.

20. Rural Incineration Disposals in Llandinam employs five full-time and two part-time staff in the "fallen stock" industry, collecting animals which have died. The company says it is "very concerned" about the general situation within farming at the moment, with many people owing money.

21. Geddes Agri in Montgomery supplies the Yeomans with lime and fertiliser, and also provides a spreading service. It employs five full-time staff and a number of seasonal workers, and employs up to 10 lorry drivers at busy times.

22. The E W Bumford and Co garage in Manafon, Welshpool, looks after the farm's vehicles. The company, founded by Eifion Bumford in 1956, employs four full-time workers and another four part-timers.

23. Wool from the Yeoman's sheep is sold through the British Wool Marketing Board, which employs 188 full-time staff across the UK, including 29 at its grading depot in Newtown.

24. Agrimin Ltd is a small private working in the manufacture, distribution and sale of specialist medication for cattle and sheep. The company has been working with the Yeomans for the past 24 years, supplying boluses which offer sustained release of nutrients that have helped improve the health and fertility of their animals.

25. Welsh Mule Sheep Breeders Association represents more than 800 farmers that arranges sales of approximately 65,000 sheep during the autumn, turning over about £4.8 million.

26. Welsh Lamb and Beef Producers is a cooperative of 7,500 members that operates the Farm Assured Welsh Livestock scheme and the Welsh Organic Scheme, and employs 56 people.

27. The Wynnstay Group supplies fertiliser and seed to the Yeomans. The company employs approximately 470 people across Wales, the Midlands, North and South West of England. Its head office is at Llansantffraid in Powys, with further divisional offices in Oswestry and Shrewsbury.

28. The Limousin Cattle Society provides registration services for the Yeomans' pedigree Limousin cattle which form part of their suckler herd. It now has more than 2,500 members and registers 19,000 animals every year, and employs eight people.

29. Dow AgroSciences is part of an international group that develops and sells herbicides, with sites around the world. In the UK it employs 30 sales and marketing staff, as well as 100 staff at a base in Oxford who work in research. The Yeomans have been working with the company's agronomy manager Brent Gibbon for almost 20 years.

30. McCartneys Auctioneers sells calves produced by the Yeomans' suckler herd at Knighton Market. The company employs about 200 people in its rural activities.

31. Much of the lamb produced by the Yeomans finds its ways onto the shelves of Sainsbury's, which employs 161,000 staff at 1,200 shops across the UK.

32. BTS Tyres, which is near to the Yeomans' farm in Adfa, has been supplying tyres to the farm's vehicles for many years. The business employs four people in Adfa, mainly supplying the agricultural industry.

33. M P Foulkes, based in Adfa, supplies tyres to BTS, and has been working with the agricultural industry for more than 60 years. The Yeomans have been dealing with M P Foulkes since the 1970s.

34. Oswestry-based W & M Agricultural Engineering was founded by Mike Worthing and John Mottram, and employs four mechanics, one full-time salesman, and one administrator. The company specialises in the sale of new and used agricultural machinery.

35. Scanner and fencing contractor David Evans employs two full-time and eight part-time workers at his business in Welshpool.

36. Shearwell Data Ltd is a family-owned business supplying farmers with livestock identification tags, electronic identification readers, electronic weighing and drafting equipment and farm management software.

37. Most of the Yeomans' lambs are sold to Dunbia, the largest processor of lamb in the UK handling in the region of two million lambs a year. The company supplies lamb to Sainsbury's.

38. The Yeomans have been using agricultural suppliers Roberts and Bumford Agri Health for many years, buying everything from dog food and outdoor clothing. The company employs six people, with their extended families involved in the business.

39. FUW Insurance Services handles the Yeomans' insurance needs. The company, which is a subsidiary of the Farmers' Union of Wales, employs 50 staff from 13 offices across Wales.