John Till, the farm manager at Hafod Y Llan in Gwynedd, talks about his year in charge of the estate, which was acquired by the Trust in 1998.
"We’ve had a good year, the sixth since the Trust took over. We have raised more than 1,500 lambs from a flock of 1,540 and have built up a new Welsh Black beef herd. The big disappointment was losing our barley to bad weather.
In farming, revolutions take time but we are already beginning to see big changes. Six miles of high stone walls have been rebuilt. Streams have been fenced off so trout can lay their eggs undisturbed.
There are new footpaths so everyone can enjoy this wonderful living landscape. Vast areas of rhododendrons have been grubbed out by volunteers. And up on Snowdon the heather and heath are recovering after years of overgrazing.
As a commercial farmer, my job was to keep as much stock as possible. Now our top concern isn’t production but conservation, although we have to be economically viable as well.
Each year we assess each area of the farm as environmentally unfavourable, recovering or favourable. Right now nothing’s favourable, but all the changes we are making are helping us steadily to climb that ladder.
That is why we have halved sheep numbers and plan to cut back even further. The new Welsh Black cattle are good for the environment. They’ll tackle the dense matted grass sheep won’t touch. We have also gone fully organic.
It has been a steep learning curve for me. There is so much an organic farmer cannot do, and wintering costs are much higher even though we try to grow our own organic silage and barley.
However, with the help of stewardship payments, the farm is bringing in now as good a financial return as when we had twice as many sheep.
My job is still to produce prime quality stock for breeding or for the market. We’ve also started selling our mountain lamb direct to the public.
There’s nothing tastier. It is slow-grown, beautifully presented and the public know that it’s been raised and killed humanely under strict RSPCA supervision. In the future we will be marketing the beef in the same way. I am looking forward to it. Welsh Black organic beef is top of the tree for taste.
I’m proud when I walk up the mountain to see the streams running clear, walls rebuilt and the heather growing well. The animals are under less pressure so there is also less illness. We are learning as we go but we can see we are doing the right thing."
£160m was invested by the National Trust in the rural environment last year.
Responding to climate change
40 years of the Trust’s Neptune Coastline campaign have brought 704 miles of coastline under the Trust’s protection. We are working constantly to adjust to the effects of coastal erosion and climate change, as here at Westbury Court Garden in Gloucestershire, which is likely to be at risk from sea level rise and fresh-water flooding.
Putting wildlife back on the map
Ecosystem restoration is being carried out on a huge scale by the Trust, often working in partnership with other conservation organisations. Much of the work is designed to restore biodiversity like our re-wilding project at Ennerdale and to improve habitats for species like this red squirrel on the Isle of Wight.
Working with rural communities
Farmers, gardeners and chefs celebrate the benefits of locally grown food in the Trust’s Plot to Plate initiative. Trust restaurants like Wimpole and Wallington serve food fresh from their estates, as well as selling through farm shops such as Wallington (right). Every year we invest £160 million in the rural environment. NT
Open spaces for all
For the first time since the troubles began, Belfast people are able to look down on their city from Divis and Black Mountain, acquired this year from the Ministry of Defence.
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