Ernie Richards wasn’t born into farming, but he was born to farm.

Childhood weekends and school holidays were spent on his maternal grandparents’ smallholding in Herefordshire where his interest in agriculture nurtured and developed.

“I’d rush there straight off the school bus on a Friday, it was where I was the happiest,’’ Ernie recalls. “I think it was the lifestyle I loved more than anything, and the open space.’’

Those early years instilled a longing to farm that never left him.

Now aged 30, and with the NFU Cymru/NFU Mutual Welsh Livestock Champion of the Year Award 2022 to his name, he never doubted that his career choice was the right one.

“There is no other job like it,’’ he says.

With an impressive set of GCSE results, further education beckoned at Holme Lacy Agricultural College followed by an agriculture and animal science degree at Aberystwyth University.

His university placement year saw him working on a mixed farm in Cumbria and a sheep farm in Canada.

After graduating, he spent a harvest season on a mixed farm in Herefordshire and then took himself off to work on a beef and sheep station in New Zealand.

He returned eight years ago and moved across the border to Wales after securing a job as a shepherd at Wernoog, a 350-acre upland sheep farm near Clyro, where he manages a flock of pedigree Lleyn ewes for Stuart and Helen Morris.

Together they have made important gains the performance and productivity of the 1,000-head closed flock.

Stuart and Helen’s allegiance to the breed is one that Ernie shares. “The Lleyn is really adaptable. We farm at 1,300 feet and have an indoor lambing system but it is a breed that suits lowland farms and outdoor lambing too.’’

Breeding pure Lleyns gives the business top quality prime lambs and allows it to breed the next generation of females. “No other breed can do both,’’ Ernie suggests.

It is a high health status flock thanks to a comprehensive programme of vaccination; jabs are given for toxoplasmosis and enzootic abortion, for clostridial diseases and pasteurella, and for foot root and orf.

Reliance on wormers has been reduced thanks to faecal egg counting.

There is a strict culling policy for ewes that experience problems at lambing, those with poor udders or persistent lameness.

As well as being a stickler for detail in managing the flock, Ernie is also a consummate planner. It all starts with Sunday’s weather forecast which mostly sets the agenda for the week ahead.

“I have a chat with Stuart and Helen about what they want to get done that week and we start to put a plan in place,’’ he says.

The relationship is one of mutual respect, with the odd disagreement thrown in to keep everyone on their toes. “It wouldn’t be natural to agree on everything. Improvements often come from challenging ideas and having points of difference,’’ Ernie believes.

“I think we have struck a good balance because I’m still here after eight years!’’

The next step will see Ernie take a bigger role in the business.

Joint venture options, a profit-share perhaps, are also being explored, to further incentivise Ernie to keep driving the business forward and to give him a greater foothold in the industry.

For a young farmer with ambition, it is an opportunity to build equity as he hopes to one day own his own flock.

Ernie sits on the NFU Cymru Next Generation Group where he helps to spread the message about farming and engages with the public.

He values the friendships he has made through this forum and the opportunities it has given him to get involved in the industry off-farm.

Looking to the future, he sees good opportunities for that next generation of farmers.

“It can be a difficult sector to get a foothold in for young people with no background in agriculture but going forward I think we will see many more different ways to help make that happen.’’