There was a moment or two in 2015 when Huw Jones questioned the wisdom of his decision to convert his beef and sheep farm to dairy, never having milked a cow.

With just months to go before the due calving dates of his 450 newly-acquired heifers, milk prices started to tumble but, more worryingly for Huw and his wife, Rachael, was the question mark hanging over whether or not they had a buyer for their milk.

“It was a worrying time,’’ Huw reflects.

But, as with many of the ups and downs associated with farming, they not only got through it but have expanded the business; they are now partners in a second dairy farm conversion, run a milk vending machine and operate a doorstep milk delivery round.

Huw is a fourth generation farmer so farming truly is in his blood.

His great-grandfather had started the family business by renting a 142-acre farm at Llanrwst from the Bryn Dyffryn Estate.

He was later offered the chance to buy Llwyn Richard and took that opportunity. Sadly he was never able to see through his plans for the farm because he died just a few years later after being kicked in the chest by a Shire horse.

His son, Bob, then just 14 years old, had to step into the breach.

The farm in turn passed to his son, Meirion, Huw’s father, also known as Mick, who continued to run it as a beef and sheep farm with his wife, Mary, like the generations before him.

Huw joined his parents in the business in 1999, returning from college to 400 sheep and 32 suckler cows.

Together they scaled up, renting parcels of land at every opportunity, and building up sheep numbers to 1,200 and the suckler herd to 100 cows.

With ambitions of his own, in 2010 Huw took on the tenancy of Plas Isa, a beef and sheep farm at Llansanffraid, Glan Conwy, where he now lives with Rachael and their family, Cari, who is 23, 20-year-old Morgan, Martha, 14, and Anihuw, 3.

They farm 360 acres across the two holdings.

Just four years into the tenancy of Plas Isa, the couple decided a change of direction was needed to secure their future.

“When we took on Plas Isa it had a big Single Farm Payment but it was always on the cards that this payment was going to evaporate so we had to change something because beef and sheep couldn’t support the rent we were paying for the farm,’’ Huw explains.

The Joneses set about establishing a 450-cow spring calving dairy enterprise.

A year later and the bulling and in-calf heifers they had imported from Ireland were on the farm.

“On reflection is was quite unbelievable because I had no experience of dairying but I laid every track, erected every fence, laid every water pipe myself, all within a year,’’ says Huw.

Milk was first produced at Plas Isa in the spring of 2016 but the autumn that preceded it was fraught with anxiety because it looked unlikely that the contract they had secured with a milk buyer would be honoured.

Three months of uncertainty followed and it wasn’t until two days before Christmas 2015 that the processor confirmed it would take their milk.

“It was a relief after a lot of worry because we had invested a huge amount of money,’’ says Huw.

The farm supplied that processor for three years before switching to its current buyer.

Three years after the first farm conversion, the decision was made to also set Llwyn Richard up as a dairy farm, in partnership with Huw’s cousin, Gareth Williams, and his wife, Rhian, who farmed next door, giving them a combined acreage of 284 acres across those two farms.

A rotary milking parlour was installed and a 340 spring-calving dairy herd established.

With the hard work done and both dairies well established, does Huw think he made the right decision to switch to dairying? “Ask me in about 10 years’ time!’’ he laughs.

The Joneses are adding value to their milk by selling some via a vending machine at Plas Isa.

The machine was installed two years ago and it has been a huge success with a strong customer base.

Buoyed by that positive experience, the family went a step further, buying a doorstep delivery round from a retiring milkman and investing in an on-farm bottling plant and associated facilities.

They now supply around 450 houses and 12 businesses, employing two full time workers and two part-time delivery drivers.

What is unmistakable is their vision and a steely determination to make a go of every opportunity that comes their way.