May 2013

As always, it has been a busy few months here at Agri Advisor. Work is continuing on the barns. However, I am pleased to say that the inside is pretty much complete, with the finishing touches being put in place at the moment. Outside is shaping up too with a lorry delivering gravel here as I speak.

There has been a lot of change within the offices recently too, with many changes in staff. We have welcomed Gail Lewis from Llanidloes who has previously worked as a land agent. I met Gail whilst attending the Agri Academy Leadership Course and realised that she was interested in doing legal work as well.  We have also welcomed Manon Tomos to the firm, who is replacing Mari Davies in the role of Business Development Officer. Mari Davies has gone on to pastures new at Menter a Busnes in a role which seeks to assist food producers with their marketing. We wish her luck in this new position and in her marriage in August this year.  We have also received the sad news that Elin Marks, our legal secretary is leaving us but also wish her luck in her new post with the NHS.  Ally Rideout from Manordeilo has already commenced work with us as a legal secretary. Carys Taylor, a solicitor and who hails from Ceredigion has also joined us in March this year and specialises in transactional matters and renewable energy projects.

May is a particularly busy month for us as we have many events taking place. This weekend we will be attending the Royal Welsh Spring Fair where we’ll have a stand. We are also attending the NSA Welsh Sheep Event 2013 on Tuesday 21^st May at Beili Ficer, Llansawel which is just a stone’s throw away from us here at Henllan. Excitingly, we will be launching our latest product at the NSA Sheep Event – our farming app! FarmMed is an app designed to make farmers lives easier by keeping their Medicine records accurate and by satisfying the regulations which farmers must abide by in terms of recording what medicines they give their animals, when and what withdrawal period applies. It is available to download from the iTunes app store for a one off price of £9.99 – much cheaper than any other similar apps currently available which charge approximately £60 per year. Come and join us on the stand for the launch and to find out more about the app as well as to have a cup of tea and a chat!

April 2013

It’s been a while since I’ve  had the chance to sit down and  write a blog, but finally I’ve got round to it. It’s been so busy here at Agri Advisor, with the Barns and new staff joining the team let alone lambing on top of it all!

As always things are changing at Agri Advisor and we continue to grow. We have a new solicitor Carys Taylor working with us (you can view her profile on our website). Pam has also joined us as office manager and is doing a great job of organizing and planning the daily running of the office. We have also been busy planning events for late spring, the next ones being The Spring Festival in May and the NSA Wales Sheep Event a few days later. You are more than welcome to come and join us for a cup of tea at our Stand at both events!

We’ve been very lucky for once, the snow didn’t affect us here, but it is heart-breaking for the farmers lambing in feet of snow, and lambs being buried alive, our thoughts go out to them. This time last year we were in a middle of a heat wave, what a difference a year makes!

Take care

Nerys

Snow, snow and more snow!

Snow has made Pumsaint famous! Pumsaint and the road from here to Lampeter has been mentioned on the news lots of times over the past few days due to a couple of accidents on that stretch. One of the advantages of working and living in the same place is that work can carry on as normal so the office is open as usual. The rest of the staff are working from home utilising the benefits of our remote working system. The barns are white and look really pretty. I've attached a photo of them yesterday morning before they started digging up the yard.

Earlier this week, I was at the last residential for the Agri Academy leadership course. We had an inspirational talk by Nigel Evans, Director of First Milk and Evanridge Properties who talked about how it was the challenge of new goals that drove him forward. We also had an entertaining few days with Gwenno Dafydd doing some media training which was something I had never experienced before. The breakfast at the Welsh Government on the Tuesday morning gave us as a group an opportunity to meet other people working within the agricultural industry including Assembly Members. Dr Christianne Glossop and Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas then spoke to us about leadership and the role of the Welsh Government in dealing with matters in relation to agriculture. We then gave feedback to DM Alun Davies on the Agri Academy leadership course and he presented us with our certificates.

Agri Academy has been an amazing experience and one I would recommend to anyone contemplating applying for the next round of the programme. As a group we have bonded in a way that I would not have believed before the course and it has provided a fantastic source of support and inspiration for me over the past six months. Our next event will be the Farming Connect conference on 6th February 2013. 

New Year

Happy New Year! Lambing season is well under way at Henllan with the shed quickly filling up with lambs. Grateful that this first batch is lambing indoors bearing in mind the weather over the past month. Our 5 sheepdog puppies are now 8 weeks old and are running around everywhere normally in hot pursuit of Llyr who thinks that he can outrun them!

In the office, we are busy as usual. We cannot wait to be in the new barns which we hope will be within the next month. We have been sale shopping for some of the internal furniture and the interiors are nearly ready bar some tiling and painting. Our current dilemma is what we call the new building and if anyone has any suggestions for a name please let us know. We are offering a bottle of wine to the person who puts forward the name that we ultimately decide to use. So far the suggestions via Facebook have included 'Llys Amaeth' and CyngorDŷ. The competition closes at the end of this month.

Tonight, we have a WiRE Carmarthenshire meeting at the Cottage Inn in Llandeilo at 7pm. Please encourage people to come along. Tony Worsley of ANY Communications will be talking about new technologies and how to maximise their use within small businesses. So if you want to know how you can use your IPad or IPhone effectively for your business then please come along and bring a friend with you.