We’re farming the heart of mid-Wales. The area is called Montgomeryshire, west of Welshpool.

The farm ranges from 600ft to 1,400ft above sea level and we get 1,500mm of rain each year.

We have 300ha and we’re running sheep and beef. There are 1,200 ewes and 300 breeding ewe lambs/hoggs ewes running behind them. There’s a strong Texel influence in the breeding.

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There are 140 suckler cows which are mostly a Saler-based breed and Charolais crosses off those cows. I’ve started using Saler Angus crosses as a way of improving the replacement genetics in the herd.

All the progeny from the cattle are sold as stores at nine or 10 months, while the lambs are sold off to Waitrose. The Waitrose relationship has been in place a long time, since 1993.

We were one of the first producer organisations established I suppose. The relationship has been in place since 1993.

They have been very good in putting a floor under the market for us at difficult times. I suppose the most memorable example of this would be the foot and mouth outbreak.

Waitrose took the step to put a base price which was higher than the market at the time in order to protect us from the crisis we were in.

This week, we are having our TB test. It’s a difficult time given that we are currently locked up with TB. We went down with it in February. It’s a real gut-wrenching experience.

It’s hard to take on a number of levels.

Cashflow

First of all, you feel dirty; you feel as if your herd is dirty. Then it messes up your system and destroys your cashflow. If you have a system that’s working for you and then something comes along and messes with that then it has numerous knock-on effects for your businesses.

We had to sell everything we normally would sell in the open market to a TB-restricted farm and we kept the Angus out at grass longer.

It meant holding on to the stock much longer than you would normally have to.

It’s not as if we are in a TB hotspot or anything. It can be a case of us getting it once and then our neighbour getting it the next time. There’s no real explanation for it.

Hopefully by Saturday we will be clear and back on track.

The weather has been tricky here really since the middle of August. It was quite wet and dull since then and the quality of grass has been poor.

The sheep are half a condition score off where they should be as they just haven’t been thriving off the grass.

The conception rates of the cows are very good though.

We calve around the middle of April so we’re then breeding around June and July.

We had a very high first cycle conception rate, so all is not lost.