Chancing on Success - Wales YFC Conference

January 2025 has arrived and if I do say so myself, already feels like the month is flying by.

I've never really been one to do new years resolutions, and when I did, it didn't take long before I broke them. I'm not even sure if new years resolutions are still a thing?

As social media channels have evolved and the rise of influencers in recent years has greatly increased, January has begun to be a month of trying to sell the 'new year, new you' lifestyle through tailor made programmes. I understand that for some people who feel this approach is needed, this marketing style is great and I hope those wanting to achieve the goals and dreams they have in 2025 all the best in doing so. 

However, for me personally, the past few years of seeing this repeated sales pitch have made me realise what I truly enjoy doing along with what I feel more confident in saying no too when the new year comes around. Why do I need to become 'new' when I would rather keep growing and enhancing my personal identity based on the experiences I have enjoyed from the previous years. So after seeing the Wales Young farmers clubs (YFC) agricultural conference programme advertised and being given the opportunity to attend it, I jumped at the chance of saying yes to going to my first conference of the year.

The Wales YFC agricultural conference for 2025 was being held at Rosedew Farm situated on the South Wales coast. The order for the day appeared to be jam packed with a broad variety of speakers and breakout sessions on the conference title 'chancing on success'. This event theme alone made me curious to find out more about what the speakers had to say.

Rhodri Davies, the owner of Rosedew farm, was the first person to present his story and showcase his opinion on what success looks like. It was incredible to hear how he and his wife and family had built up such a large scale business of multiple enterprises from the humble beginnings of living in a caravan on site in 1995. An emotional presentation by Rhodri about family and the seriousness on transitioning the business to the next generation. It was a presentation full of passion, determination and teamwork with Rhodri highlighting the importance of delegation and trusting those you work with to use their initiative and get the job done.

Next to speak was Emily Davies from Just Farmers. This was the talk I was looking forward to the most because of my ongoing interest in the media representation of the farming industry and the people who work within it. A lot of the words Emily used in her presentation were words I had heard repeated throughout a number of events and presentations already heard over the previous 12 months. What I did find interesting however, was her knowledge of how the media industry and the time pressure journalists have to ensure a story is presented works. I couldn't agree more with her statement of how farmers need to be confident in telling their stories to the media and consumers and how as farmers we need to get better at communicating our lifestyle and stories in a way that others can almost feel they are walking in our shoes.

The third speaker of the morning was Nina Pritchard, a farmers daughter from Pembrokeshire who now works at McDonalds as Director, European Markets Sustainability who focused on the importance of making sure you are resilient in building your own personal success through taking advantage of networking opportunities and industry insights wherever possible. Neil Burchell, from Food and Drinks Wales followed and provided great detail on the statistics they have gathered about the consumer purchasing habits of Welsh produce from the branding methods used on food items to the locations they get sold at, how they get the best sale results and the stories used to showcase them.

Simple but bold were the opening words used by the final speaker of the day, Lauren Evans from Fablas ice cream in Cowbridge and bold in outfit and presentation she was! Lauren has used social media platforms to showcase her shops, products and story of high quality British milk from cow to cone for a number of years. A tool more and more within the agricultural industry are learning they are needing to understand and use where possible in order to market to their audiences and customers. What I liked about Laurens presentation was her honesty in admitting that there is no one single definition of success. Success evolves and what looks great at one stage of your life will look completely different in another. For her success is all about survival, growth and evolvement of her business through the difficult times. Each person has their own ideas of success and it is important to enjoy the journey, remain resilient and have belief that you can succeed. 

The afternoon session allowed us to explore the diversification enterprise at Rosedew farm by giving us a tour of their Farmers Pantry Butchers. These types of tours always inspire me with the knowledge they have for sourcing, preparing and delivering the best meat products for the end consumer. There was definitely a clear farm to fork passion on display and no question was unable to be answered by Dawie, the driving force behind the Farmers Pantry, as to what his customer wanted and the gaps in the livestock producing market within Wales and the UK for what his shops and counters need.

Driving home from this conference, my first of 2025, I questioned if I was as animated and inspired as I usually am following a day of talks and tours? Probably not. However, there was definitely some key points to take away from the event. Key themes and buzz words that are being used repeatedly at present to inform this industry about what, how and why they need to consider in order to move both their businesses and industry forward to be successful.

Your family or team that works alongside you needs to have the same passion and enthusiasm for this industry as you. The same belief in what you are hoping to achieve. The way you present yourself and your business needs to be authentic, clear, honest and show empathy in order for the farming sector to be understood by those outside of it. The emotions at the start of the day with Rhodri were still evident within the final presentation by Lauren. These emotions for their businesses but more importantly the families they are supporting is what makes working within the rural communities of Wales so important. They all made their stories human because they were given the opportunity to speak from the heart about their careers and lifestyles all because they took the opportunities to chance on success.

Until next time

H x