Farmer will be 'over the moon' if his charity herd sells for £100,000

Emyr, 78, who lives at Deytheur, near Llansantffraid, on the North Powys border with Shropshire, is selling The Old Stackyard Blues closed breeding herd which he established in memory of his late, beloved wife Evelyn, who died at the age of 69 from ovarian cancer in 2015.

The sale takes place at Shrewsbury Auction Centre as part of an annual sale by auctioneers Halls of pedigree British Blues and commercial cattle, and starts at 11am. Senior auctioneer and auction centre manager Jonny Dymond says the company is honoured to sell Emyr’s herd for him.

After losing his wife, Emyr immediately pledged to do something positive to raise awareness and educate people about ovarian cancer, which he describes as an “evil disease”, as a tribute to her. Because of the couple’s long connection with the farming community he also wanted to support farmers in need.

The Old Stackyard British Blues, established in 2016, is the only charity herd of its type in the UK, as all the money raised from the sale of the cattle over the past seven years has been shared between Ovarian Cancer Action and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI).

Emyr has already raised nearly £122,000 for the charities and he hopes the final sale of the 33 cattle will add another £100,000 to the pot.

Ovarian Cancer Action hopes to fund a specialist researcher for an entire year with their share of the sale proceeds, which would be a fitting tribute to Emyr’s wife, whom he lovingly refers to as Evie.

He is selling up because he was seriously injured by one of his bulls while preparing it for a sale in Carlisle last month. He is lucky to be alive after the “spooked” bull crushed and trampled him, leaving him with a badly injured legs and broken ribs.

Emyr's niece, Laura Pritchard, who has helped with admin since the herd was established, rescued him from the pen where he was grooming the bull.

They are both philosophical about the sale of the herd.

“If it hadn’t have been this year, it would probably have been next year,” said Emyr.

“I was bit unfortunate to hurt myself but we have had seven years of pleasure from the cattle and have met some wonderfully generous people.

“It has always been my ambition to have a shed full of cattle worth £100,000 and we shall find out tomorrow if I’ve achieved that.”

Looking to the future without the cattle, he said: “I shall have a bit more time to get out and about more. I do jobs for other people – anything with a digger, making furniture and I did the carpentry in an extension for a neighbour - and I do after dinner speaking.

“I shall be making more furniture as I already have orders and I also open my garden to raise money for the charities. I’ve also started writing my second book. I shall still be raising money for the charities but on a different scale.”

Asked what Evelyn would think of his fundraising, Emyr replied: “She would think I have lost the plot.”

Laura added: “She was a very private person and she would find this overwhelming.”

Emyr continued: “What hurts me most is that she isn’t here to see the cattle. She would have loved them. We had toyed with the idea of having a few British Blues as a sideline when we retired, but the TB problems persuaded us not to.

"She was a very special lady, kind, caring and multi-talented. After a lifetime of work, the majority of her retirement years were stolen from her.”