He has been dubbed the United Kingdom’s favourite farmer, but Gareth Wyn Jones still does a double take at the size of his social media following.
Three Facebook videos of the North Wales farmer working with sheep attracted 710 million, 687 million and 137 million views respectively. He has 2.5 million followers on YouTube, 350,000 on Facebook, 133,600 on Tik Tok and a relatively sedate 67,000 on X (formerly Twitter).
He also fronts television news stories about farming and has made documentaries, including one where he visited Welsh farmers who had moved to New Zealand chasing better opportunities.
It is a powerful tool that the fearlessly outspoken and proud Llanfairfrechan farmer uses to promote his beloved farming sector by highlighting the issues it faces and challenging those he believes unreasonably attack it.
His motives are altruistic but there is an element of self-interest.
“It’s always about telling a story so there is a future for my three children on the land, so they can make a living.”
He is using social media to create an environment for the next generation of UK farmers.,
But it’s a platform that can be a double-edged sword.
A video last spring of him skinning a dead lamb – so he could put the pelt on an orphaned lamb to re-mother it – went viral but resulted in multiple death threats by animal welfare activists.
Police investigated and security was increased at the coastal property.
“It was lunacy. You couldn’t make this up,” Wyn Jones said.
Wyn Jones prefers to engage with critics of farming, to try to reason and provide some understanding and balance, an approach he concedes can at times be a lost cause.
Vegans, animal rights activists and politicians are all fair game, but not for him to bully and demean, although he concedes vegan animal rights activist Joey Carbstrong riles him to the point where he calls him “little Joey”.
A few years ago Wyn Jones invited a vegan and animal rights activist who was campaigning against shearing sheep onto the farm.
A civilised conversation ensued – all relayed on social media – but even at the end she refused to touch a fleece.
UK media turn to Wyn Jones as the go-to voice of farming on issues affecting the sector.
He has debated decisions by universities not to serve animal protein in their colleges, and the National Trust, which governs the UK’s historic and protected sites, to make half their menus in their cafes and restaurants vegetarian.
Making a case is who Wyn Jones is.
“I have never been a bloke not to walk through a door that is half-open or closed. I always walk through it, I like to look at the challenges, I’m inquisitive.”
He constantly seeks solutions to problems, saying a resolution will never be achieved if people are not honest and refuse to talk to each other.
“If you’re honest, even if you disagree, you are more likely to find solutions to problems,” he says.
And that is where politicians frustrate him. They seldom give a straight answer, he said.
Integrity and honesty are values he rates highly, illustrated by fronting up and conceding to his millions of followers when he got something wrong.
Wyn Jones believes many of the problems facing farmers are the result of supermarkets and government policy severing the link between farmers and consumers and therefore an understanding of how food is produced.
Food that was once available seasonally is now stocked year-round, which removes the mystique and the appreciation of the effort required to produce it.
It becomes just another plum, tomato, strawberry or raspberry, said Wyn Jones.
“People don’t know what the first strawberry or the first tomato of the season tastes like. They get fed this mass-produced food.”
They also no longer appreciate the value of food, with a third of all food produced globally being wasted.
“It makes no sense, how society has been removed from how food is produced.”
While prepared to confront those who attack food producers, Wyn Jones will praise those who help.
Some years ago he was at a festival attended by the then Prince Charles.
It was obvious to Wyn Jones that the Prince’s minders were wary of the Welsh farmer, perhaps considering him too outspoken and blunt, so kept the future king well away.
Undeterred and definitely not intimidated, Wyn Jones spied an opening and strode up to the Prince shook his hand and said: “I am not a royalist, but I really appreciate everything you are doing for the countryside.”
Prince Charles was quickly shuffled away by his minders, but the two later had a further conversation.
“The guy was cool,” said Wyn Jones, and deserves praise for what he is doing for farmers, running several properties and promoting British produce.
Wyn Jones has met numerous politicians and said he tells it as he sees it.
Given 15 minutes with former prime minister Rishi Sunak, he gave him both barrels about the sorry plight of farmers. Given a similar opportunity to talk to the Welsh Parliament, he didn’t hold back, lambasting their plans to plant 10% of Wales in trees and allowing 15% to revert to natural habitat.
The net effect, he said, is that 20% of farms will be out of business.
Still to meet new UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Wyn Jones has specific concerns about the impact of possible tax changes on farm succession and the management of bovine tuberculosis.
“We have to protect our livelihoods or there will be nothing for the next generation wanting to get onto the land,” he said.
Wyn Jones believes government policy has created an imbalance in favour of sequestering carbon and against the production of affordable food and which totally ignores the role of livestock.
Trees should be planted in the right place and hedgerows nurtured and managed, but he said the contribution of livestock in the carbon cycle should be acknowledged.
He argues that livestock eat vegetation which then sequesters carbon into the soil as it regrows, while also providing nutrient-dense food, employment and underpinning rural communities.
“What I produce is top quality lamb and beef in a sustainable way,” he said.
“This is sheep and cattle country, that is all it can produce. I could not get a combine onto this land, it’s far too steep.”
Farmers were guilty of overgrazing in the 1970s and 1980s, encouraged to do so by government headage payments, but Wyn Jones argues that going by the extent with which livestock numbers have fallen, the opposite could be the case now.
He has debated the future of agriculture at the Oxford Union with journalist and farming critic George Monbiot but says former rock star, Queen guitarist Brian May, an outspoken ally of badgers, will not debate with him the role of badgers in spreading bovine tuberculosis and the impact on farmers.
A UK issue, it has become personal for Wyn Jones, with a close friend forced to sell his farm after his 180 cows were slaughtered due to an outbreak of the disease.
The farm was a disease hot spot, costing him £30,000 ($64,000) a month, and he could not rid of it.
Wyn Jones wants a scientific approach with badgers tested for the disease so those infected can be culled instead of the end recipient.
As badger numbers have exploded, Wyn Jones said, the number of hedgehogs and ground birds on his farm has plummeted, preyed on by the native Mustelidae.
The Wyn Jones family have been on the Llanfairfechan farm for 375 years and he is motivated to ensure his ancestors can be there for another 375 years and more.
It is getting tough.
The average age of farmers in the UK is 67 and getting a start on the land is difficult – and could become even more so if the Labour government fulfils a promise to change inheritance tax rules, which will make succession more costly.
Where once there were 15,000 sheep grazing the wider Llanfairfechan area, Wyn Jones said there are about 9000 today
Gareth and Rhian are both passionate about the Welsh language and the history of their community.
That includes helping manage a herd of rare Carneddau ponies, of which there are just 220 breeding mares left.
Since Celtic times they have roamed the 11,000 hectare Carneddau mountains, a vast national park that borders the Wyn Jones farm.
Ancient neolithic axe heads discovered in Europe were found to have come from his Llanfairfechan farm up to 6000 years ago.
Wyn Jones has discovered buildings on the Carneddau mountains dating back hundreds if not thousands of years.
His social media role is a seven-day a week business, attracting product endorsements and requiring a support network that includes Rhian, content manager Dewi Jones and two of their three children, Sior and Mari. They have a second son, Rolant.
They are also diversifying.
Their farm hosts weekly immersive tourism for much of the year. That includes working sheep dog displays and giving tourists a hands-on involvement in farm activities.
“It’s culturally not just a farm tour, it’s telling our story and engaging people in everything that we do here,” he said.
The 240ha home farm is still part of a family company formed by his grandfather, who had five sons.
The company owns 600ha and rents another 200ha split between three blocks, on which they run 4000 sheep, 120 cows, including single suckers, and another 340 cattle.
The predominantly Limousin breed is being shifted to Hereford, which he said suits the country.
They finish stock and grow silage.
Wyn Jones said the farm is a perfect foil for the intensity of his media work, but increasingly his public profile means people with major challenges reach out to him for help and advice.
Mental health is a huge issue among UK farmers and Wyn Jones has dealt with several who have found themselves struggling to cope financially or mentally.
He directs them to services that can assist, but it provides a further reminder of the many challenges facing the sector he loves.
Wyn Jones finds solace in getting out on the farm which he says is defined perfectly in a Welsh proverb: Lle i enaid gael llonydd – a place for the soul to find peace.
More: Wallace is visiting seven countries in six weeks to report on market sentiment, a trip made possible with grants from Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms, Alliance, Beef + Lamb NZ, NZ Meat Industry Association and Rabobank. Read more about his findings here.
