Ceredigion sheep farmer James Raw has been named winner of this year’s Low Impact Award in the annual M&S Select Farm Awards.
Raw, who is the Low Impact Award winner for England and Wales, was commended by judges for his farm’s resourcefulness and ethos of self-sufficiency.
He is a seventh generation farmer and runs a hill farm in the Cambrian mountains with a lamb enterprise consisting of 850 Welsh Hill ewes in an outdoor lambing system, with finished lambs being supplied to M&S via processor Dunbia.
Sustainability has always been a central element of the farm’s management, with two hydroelectric turbines built in 2012 producing enough electricity to power 300 homes.
This power is exported to the grid as well as powering their home. But the farm’s record of environmentally friendly practices goes back further, M&S said.
“We have been in environmental schemes for probably 25 to 30 years,” Raw said.
“Currently, one option we’ve chosen is to reduce grazing on the more than 300ha of peat bogs to help maintain and improve the carbon sequestration levels and number of heathers and sphagnum mosses.”
Sustainability
Elsewhere, subsoil left from the construction of the hydroelectric turbines was used to create earth banks, with hedgerows planted on top.
Over the last 15 years, Raw has planted more than 3km of hedgerows, helping create a shelter for livestock, a carbon sink and wildlife corridors.
Raw also peels and processes some wood from the farm for fencing, beams and cladding, processes and naturally dries sustainable firewood and has commissioned several tables and benches from windblown oak for the farm’s holiday cottage.
Head of agriculture and fisheries at M&S, Steve McLean, said: “Every day, our Select Farmers go to extraordinary lengths to deliver great quality M&S food to our customers, producing lower carbon, responsible food, while protecting natural resources and driving innovation.
“James has expertly demonstrated how the natural resources of his farm can be used, not only to benefit its sustainability, but by producing so much hydroelectric power, the wider community too.”
