Dinah Williams; Organic farmer whose dairy herd was the inspiration for Rachel's Dairy (Interesting)
Hyfler/Rosner
September 25, 2009
Dinah Williams: organic farming pioneer
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6847838.ece
Dinah Williams ran one of the longest-established organic
farms in Britain, as well as the first certified organic
dairy farm, at Brynllys in Ceredigion, West Wales. She was
also one of the earliest members of the Soil Association.
Her daughter, Rachel, and son-in-law, Gareth Rowlands, who
took over the family farm in 1966, followed her organic
ethos and founded Rachel's Dairy, which now has a �30
million turnover and celebrates its 25th anniversary this
year.
Williams often appeared on platforms with Lady Eve Balfour,
whose writings had led to the creation of the Soil
Association in 1946, trying to dissuade farmers from using
artificial fertilisers and pesticides. In the late 1950s
their fervent message was not always well received, but
Williams lived to see her faith in organic farming become
widespread. Later she was described as a "matriarch" of the
organic movement by Patrick Holden, the director of the Soil
Association.
Williams, who was described as "quietly outspoken", held
strong convictions about traditional farming practices and
natural medicine. Widely known as "Mrs Williams Brynllys"
after the name of the family farm, she was passionate about
the role of nutrition in health and the importance of good
food. One of her favourite sayings was "the whiter the
bread, the sooner you're dead".
Dinah Eiluned Lyon Williams (n�e Jones) was born in
Aberystwth in 1911, one of three children of Abel Jones,
Professor of Agriculture at Aberystwyth University, and his
wife, Bessie Brown, MBE, the university's first dairy
instructress and organiser of the Women's Land Army in Wales
during the First World War.
She attended Ardwyn Grammar School in Aberystwyth, and
Aberystwyth University. From the age of 5 she was milking
cows before school, and it quickly became apparent that she
was determined to follow her parents into agriculture, later
telling a biographer: "I always wanted to farm. I remember
being given a task at school, I think it was for the 11-plus
exam, to write an essay. They asked, 'What do you want to do
when you grow up?' and I remember writing 'I want to be a
farmer', telling them all about the cows. Nothing deflected
me then and nothing has deflected me since."
At the age of 12 she competed in the London Dairy Show,
winning first prize in the milking competition for the
under-18s. She began to show the family's prize Guernseys,
developing a keen eye for breeding characteristics of dairy
cattle that would lead her to become a revered judge in
later life.
She inherited a strong interest in crop rotation in land
management from her father, who, under Sir George Stapledon,
the agricuralist, had established the Welsh Plant Breeding
Station at Aberystwyth in 1919. She acquired expertise in
grass mixtures on pasture, appreciating the nutritional
value of planting clover and herbs. With her mother,
Williams used to spread seaweed collected from the beach as
a valuable mineral supplement to enrich their pastures.
During the 1930s she travelled to the Soviet Union in a
party led by Sir John Russell, the director of Rothamsted
scientific institute. She was impressed by the hard-working
farmers in Ukraine but profoundly shocked by the repressive
and damaging effect of Stalin's collective farms.
She married Stanley Owen Williams in 1941. They farmed first
at Pantydwn near Borth and then Brynllys, near Dolybont,
West Wales, with their four children. Williams's mother had
passed her the tenancy of Brynllys in 1948.
In 1952 Williams attended an inspirational lecture at the
Shrewsbury Flower Show by Lady Balfour, author of The Living
Soil, a classic of the organic movement. She decided to join
the Soil Association on the spot, and Brynllys Farm
subsequently became Britain's first certified organic dairy
farm in 1976. Balfour visited Williams at Brynllys and
described the farm, its fields and grasses as "outstanding"
in an article in the Soil Association's journal, Mother
Earth, in 1956. Not suprisingly, the two women became firm
friends.
In dairy practices, too, Williams and her husband were
regarded as unconventional, prioritising the condition and
welfare of their herd over cruder measures such as milk
production alone. But by overwintering their Guernseys
outdoors and establishing "nurse" cows to suckle calves for
much longer periods than normal, they were able to build up
a strong herd whose ultimate long-term yield was greater
than more intensively farmed cattle. Also on the property
was a flock of Clun Forest ewes, 100 hill sheep and more
than 300 hens.
When her husband died suddenly in 1966, Williams handed the
running of Brynllys Farm to her middle daughter, Rachel, and
her son-in-law Gareth Rowlands. The couple founded their
organic yogurt business, Rachel's Dairy, in 1984 after the
farm was cut off during a snowstorm and they were forced to
find alternative uses for the milk. The Rowlands sold the
business to Horizon, an American organic firm, for �1.5
million in 1999.
In the mid-1980s Brynllys was the inspiration behind a
storyline in The Archers: Pat and Tony Archer "went organic"
at Bridge Farm after a scriptwriter for Radio 4 visited the
farm.
A book detailing the family history and the lives of the
three generations at Brynllys, They Dared to Make a
Difference, by Teleri Bevan, was published in 2009. Williams's
quiet authority is evident from the first page: "In
conversation she is direct and her blue eyes become steely
when she discusses topics such as GM crops or blatant
intensive farming methods and the role of women in
agriculture."
Williams founded the West Wales branch of the Soil
Association in 1975 and served as president of the English
Guernsey Cattle Society from 1977-78. She was also appointed
a Fellow of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society in 1977 and
served as a council member of the Soil Association from 1976
to 1984. In addition, she was a lifelong member of the
Aberystwyth & District Grassland Society.
Williams remained active all her life, eschewing doctors and
preferring to rely on self-healing or naturopathic remedies.
For many years her annual holiday was the rigorous "Kingston
Fortnight" nature cure at Boat of Garten in the Scottish
Highlands. She liked to take a cold bath each morning and
advocated regular cold compresses to the kidneys to
eliminate toxins. When earlier this year, at the age of 97,
she broke her wrist in a fall, she astonished doctors by
refusing anaesthetic before they reset the bone and put it
in plaster - a procedure that was far more worrisome for
them than for her. She liked to "walk the farm" well into
her nineties, checking on the welfare of the livestock.
According to Patrick Holden, her philosophy and practice
directly influenced the whole of the organic dairy farming
community in Britain, "whether they know it or not. I gave
up using antibiotics in the udders of my own dairy cows 15
years ago because of her. She was an inspiration."
Those who knew Williams well say that the 15th-century
ploughmen's song God Speed the Plough, which was one of her
favourite poems and which appeared on the order of service
at her funeral last week, perfectly sums up her
steadfastness and integrity as a countrywoman: "I eat my own
lamb,/ My own chickens and ham,/ I shear my own fleece and I
wear it./ I have lawns, I have bowers/ I have fruits, I have
flowers . . .".
Williams is survived by a son and three daughters.
Dinah Williams, organic farmer, was born on July 23, 1911.
She died on September 3, 2009, aged 98