Anna Ennever-Jones is a Welsh farmer based in the uplands of mid Wales, who brings a thoughtful and practical perspective on sustainable livestock farming. Anna grew up on her family’s sheep and beef farm and returned in her mid-20s, after spending over a decade pursuing her passion of working with horses. She now farms alongside her father and is gradually introducing more sustainable and data-informed practices to the farm. She’s also exploring mixed grazing and improvements to soil and slurry management. We caught up with Anna to learn more about her story and to see what’s next for this family-run farm.
Setting the scene
Anna’s family farm is home to approximately 500 sheep and 100 head of cattle. The flock consists of Welsh mule ewes, which are bred with Charolais or Texel tups and a suckler herd of cows. The farm sits approximately 650 feet above sea level – just high enough to be classified as an upland farm. Whilst upland farms are usually associated with lower soil fertility and harsher conditions, Anna comments on her father’s efforts to improve conditions on the farm:
“My father has worked very hard to increase quality of grass and quality of soil on the farm, so even though we’re upland, we don’t struggle with [grass quality], thanks to my father’s hard work.”The land was cared for by Anna’s father for many years, and in truth, it was never Anna’s plan to return to the family farm. Anna recalls that growing up, she was always on the farm, but that this was primarily due to her real passion – her horses! Whilst she enjoyed lambing time and driving around on the gator next to her father, taking over the farm business was never something she envisaged doing. When asked why, Anna reflects:
“At the time, I never saw myself doing it. At the time, there was no one like me doing it.”However, after spending many years pursuing her passion of working with horses, Anna did eventually return to the family farm - a decision that was based on the fact that her father wasn’t getting any younger, and that her younger brother had no interest in agriculture. Keen to keep the farm within the family, Anna decided to give it a go - whilst keeping her beloved horses as a “hobby”. Farming alongside her father has been incredibly rewarding, with Anna commenting:
“Dad has been great, and he’s guided me and shown me the ropes, and shown me the way that he does things. Sometimes, I do things the way I want to – most of the time it goes down ok but we do clash at times. But we’re 10 years in now so it’s going alright!”Women in farming Speaking of the reasons as to why she didn’t consider farming as a life choice, Anna commented that it wasn’t something she saw many, if any, women doing when she was growing up.
“ When I was younger, I didn’t see anyone like me farming, it was always my dad and our workmen, and all of our neighbours were men, and it was always the farmer and the farmer’s wife.”However, times have changed and today, there are generally far more women at the forefront of agriculture. Women are making their voices heard and making themselves seen in a typically male-dominated industry. Anna comments;
“It’s nice to be able to see more of us. When you see yourself in others, it helps inspire and brings everyone together.”This is something that is particularly important for Anna, as she has a young daughter herself. Whilst she is keen to stress that there is absolutely no pressure for her daughter to embrace the family business, Anna is thrilled that her daughter has plenty of female role models to look up to – with her mum being the most important! Speaking of the possibility of her daughter following in her mother’s and grandfather’s footsteps, Anna comments:
“I would like to think she’ll follow in our footsteps. Our aim is to pave the way for her to step in, like my father did for me. His great work allowed me to slip in and take over.”So, what’s next? Anna and family have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline, with plans to start selling their own beef and lamb boxes direct from the farm – even thinking about online deliveries in the not-so-distant future. Anna even plans to bring some more pigs onto the farm to be able to provide pork boxes in the future, too, giving consumers the choice they desire. Wider plans also include opening the farm up to the public, allowing consumers to learn more about where their food comes from. Making good use of her husband’s impressive background in catering and hospitality, having run restaurants up and down the country over the years, Anna plans to offer pop-up dining experiences on the farm, utilising local and seasonal produce to inspire consumers to shop locally. Anna comments:
“…it’s going to be really exciting to share the farm with the general public and show them where their food comes from and show them what they can do with it.”This will build on what is already an impressive list of events and opportunities Anna’s farm offers the public, as they already offer ‘Lambing Live’ events during lambing season for the public to come and witness all that goes in to lambing. There’s also a holiday let on the property where guests can stay and explore the many trails and routes that have been opened up on the farm, specifically for their guests. In addition to all of these exciting diversification plans, Anna is also keen to build on the successes of improved practices on farm, that has helped improve flock health and grazing management. Making data-lead changes has made a huge difference to the health of their lambs, and in the next five years, Anna hopes to build on this, increasing cattle numbers along with further concentrating on the quality of the sheep flock they hold. We can’t wait to see Anna’s plans progress!
