For two Mid Wales farmers, signing up for Farming Connect’s prestigious personal development programme, the Agri Academy, when it was first launched by the Welsh Government in 2012, was the start of a new positive and more profitable phase of life from which they still benefit today. Both credit many of their achievements in recent years to the Agri Academy and the amazing friendships and support networks which resulted.
Beef and sheep farmer Mark Williams, who farms around 800 acres at locations between Welshpool and Llanidloes, says that the intensive programme of mentoring, training and guidance gave him immense drive and confidence.
“The Agri Academy experience, which included high level meetings with Ministers, AMs and policy leads in Welsh Government and with EU officials and MEPs in Brussels was a huge influence which led me to accept the role of county chairman of the Montgomeryshire FUW; I was invited to state the case for Welsh farmers when the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Andrea Leadsom, made her recent ‘post Brexit’ visit to Wales and another result which I hadn’t really expected, is that by today, I’m also making some significant financial savings on my farm,” said Mark.
Keith Williams, also a beef and sheep farmer, who has a holding of 400 acres in Hundred House, near Llandrindod Wells has a similar success story to tell. Like Mark, Keith enrolled for the Rural Leadership Programme in 2012.
“The Agri Academy experience gave me the confidence to speak up in public on industry issues and I feel ready to put something back into the industry which has given me so much.
“I started to get involved with Welsh Government policy officials so that I could make sure that the opinions of Welsh farmers are heard and taken account of; I took up a role with my local show committee and I’ve become far more involved with Farming Connect, hosting many events at my family farm and more recently, signing up to be one of Farming Connect’s approved mentors.
“I knew I wanted to get more involved in rural issues, and felt I might have a valuable contribution to make, but it was thanks to the Agri Academy that I had the ambition and confidence to do something about it,” says Keith.
And like Mark, Keith says he’s also running a more profitable business than he was back in 2012.
The financial benefits and improved ways of working which both farmers talk about, stem largely from the support and mentoring available from other candidates, who continue to get together at every opportunity and are usually out in force when Farming Connect arranges one of its Agri Academy alumni events.
“There is usually someone from our group who is likely to have the knowledge or advice you need. Between us we have got an enormous range of skills and areas of expertise,” says Keith.
Both farmers are also making financial savings through implementing a minimum tillage approach to establishing brassica crops, a technique they learned having teamed up with another Agri Academy candidate to enter a Farming Connect Farmer Enterprise Competition.
“The benefits just go on and on. It was a unique and hugely rewarding experience and I would advise any ambitious eligible individuals to apply for this year’s Agri Academy, so that they too can influence the rural agenda at this critical time,” said Mark.
There are three separate elements to the Academy:
- Rural Leadership Programme – a joint collaboration with the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society
- Business & Innovation programme
- Junior Programme – a joint collaboration with Wales YFC for those aged between 16 and 19 years.
For further information and to download application forms, click here or contact your local development officer.