How a small scale wind turbine provides valuable extra income for a farm on the southern slopes of Cader Idris in Meirionnydd while also making it self-sufficient for its electricity requirements has been illustrated to members and officials of the Farmers' Union of Wales county branch.
The group paid a visit to the farm - at Rhiwogof, Talyllyn, near Tywyn - of 35-year-old Dilwyn Pughe who runs it in partnership with his parents John and Meirwen Pughe. Dilwyn is married to Eleri and they have two children, eight-year-old Enlli and five-months-old Elgan.
Dilwyn is the fourth generation to take over the family farm which extends to around 1,000 acres of mainly hill and mountain land overlooking Talyllyn lake, with an extra 75 acres of lower land at Pennal, near Machynlleth.
Stocking includes 17 suckler cows, some of which are pedigree Simmental, and 500 Welsh Mountain ewes together with 140 yearlings.
Having lived previously at nearby Talyllyn with his parents, Dilwyn moved to Rhiwogof when he was 18 to farm with his grandparents and his great uncle Evan Nutting.
He spent a year at Glynllifon Agricultural College and took a keen interest in breeding quality stock and developing the farm enterprise.
"It was after attending a Farming Connect meeting that I was inspired to look for alternative means of income from the farm and I found the idea of a small wind turbine the ideal solution," he said.
He contacted Paul Burrell of Anemos Renewables who provided professional assistance and expertise in managing the entire planning process.
"The MCS-accredited Evance R9000 wind turbine has now been running for over six months and produces an average of 9-10,000 kw a year for the family," Dilwyn said.
"With an initial capital outlay of approximately £32,000, the turbine produces all the energy requirements of the farm itself and an income of over £3,000 per annum."
The wind turbine is located close to the farm buildings and Mr Burrell and Dilwyn gave those attending the farm visit further details of the project and answered a variety of questions.
The visitors were also shown other aspects of the farm enterprise which joined the Tir Cymen scheme when Meirionnydd was chosen as a pilot area in 1992.
At the end of the 10-year Tir Cymen agreement, the farm entered Tir Gofal for a further 10 years and is currently in the Tir Gofal transition until the end of the year.
An application has been completed for the Glastir Scheme to take effect from 2014 and the farm will also hopefully gain entry to the Glastir advanced scheme, also from that date.
Dilwyn has also taken advantage of the Young Entrants Support Scheme (Yess) and re-roofed a listed building on the farm grant aid "Rhaglen Tir Eryri" which was run some years ago by the Snowdonia National Park Authority. Another farm building has been re-roofed using capital grant aid under the Tir Gofal Scheme.
FUW president Emyr Jones said: "This farm visit gave me an ideal opportunity to warmly congratulate an enterprising young farmer such as Dilwyn and his family on their imaginative achievements."
