Ambassador role for Carmarthen farmer
There’s always a welcome and something to learn at the Merlin’s Hill Centre – the Carmarthenshire farm enterprise run by the new NFU/Natwest Wales Woman Farmer of the Year, Sharon Richards.
Now she hopes to extend that welcome across the border by going through to the UK finals in the Farming Ambassador of the Year category of NFU Farming Excellence Awards.
It was Sharon’s skill and commitment to combining working on the family’s farm at Abergwili near Carmarthen, with running the Merlin’s Hill Centre and promoting Welsh agriculture which impressed the Welsh judges, and which it is hoped will win her the UK title.
Based around an Iron Age Hill Fort, the 220 acre farm has 120 pure bred Jacob sheep – whose wool has been woven to make blankets and scarves which are sold at the Centre and at local craft outlets.
Surplus lambs are sold directly to customers as meat, and the skins are cured to sell as sheepskin rugs.
Very much a working farm there is also a 200 strong dairy herd, and a viewing gallery has been built in the milking parlour to allow visitors to watch the cows being milked.
Visitors who come from all over the world can not only see the farm’s Iron Age Hill Fort, but learn about modern farming and the importance of agriculture. They can even stay at the farm as the mother of two also runs a B&B enterprise. She is also Vice Chairman of the Carmarthenshire Farm Country Holiday Group and is a local Urdd leader.
Teaching visitors about farming life she says is very rewarding.
“We were very surprised to realise how little children know about food and farming. Some children believed that a sheep had to be killed in order to provide wool.”
Last year the Visitor Centre saw 2,000 people through its gates, and Sharon believes that the initiative has safeguarded the farm’s future.
“We are farmers first and foremost, the greatest compliment to us when children visit and call it a ‘proper farm’. We very much want to stay a working farm.”
Married to Gareth, and mother to Carys and Carwyn, Sharon was brought up on a dairy farm near St Clears. She achieved an OND in Business Studies and is a qualified Accounting Technician.
The development of Merlin’s Hill Centre grew from the number of enquiries the farm received about the Arthurian Magician, Merlin, who according to legend is sleeping in the hill on the farm. Not only is the hill said to be Merlin’s rest place, but it is also the site of one of Wales’ largest Iron Age Hill Forts.
