Lucy May Griffiths - Sustainable grazing options
Lucy was announced as a winner of the NSA Samuel Wharry Memorial Award for the Next Generation in late 2022 and used the funding to enhance existing travel plans to visit New Zealand and Australia to investigate sustainable grazing options. She completed the report on her findings in summer 2024 .
Travel overview
Lucy works alongside her family on a mixed farm in Wales, lambing around 650 mules and homebred Texel cross ewes. Her aim is to create a sheep flock with a focus on sustainable production linked to alternative winter grazing methods. For her research project, she chose to investigate more sustainable grazing practices with a focus on outwintering, assessing the costs, infrastructure, technologies and equipment.
“I worked in New Zealand alongside farmers in return for an insight into their businesses breeding, genetic and grazing strategies,” explains Lucy. “At Waihora Farm in Taupo the focus was on milk sheep and beef finished in both a technologically advanced profitable system with sympathy for the environmental constraints of the Lake Taupo catchment. On South Island, I saw how developing to scale takes patience, focus and the ability to manage aims with family and practicality.”
She then spent three summer months in Australia where farms varied form stud flocks such as New Armatree Border Leicesters which used technology, genetics and wider industry involvement to advocate for agriculture, to flocks of thousands where management in a harsh climate adds risk to business plans and profitability. She took time to analyse all elements of the businesses which affect productivity, profitability and sustainability, including genetics, grazing strategies, off-farm activities, monitoring and recording.
“My key findings were that the success of all the businesses are pinned on the farmers’ ability to monitor changes and make actions based on this data. The use of genetic technology in Australia highlighted the opportunities to expand this element of UK sheep farming,” says Lucy.
“The New Zealand businesses were all avid record keepers to see the true cost of production and would alter how they sold animals or feeding management to ensure that despite weather or market fluctuations they were still able to be profitable. It showed how altering your focus could improve business and increase production even where legislation, markets and global influences could affect the marketability of lamb,” she adds.
“For me, the overriding message is collaborating and sharing information, technology and supporting other farmers helps resilience in a changing market, climate and industry. Ensuring farming has a voice at national level is also important.”
Full report
Download Lucy's report for detail on her travels and findings.
