Glamorganshire beef and sheep farmer and long standing South Wales special member of the Farmers' Union of Wales finance and organisation committee Lorraine Howells was honoured by the union at her farm in the Rhymney valley when she was presented with the FUW's gold medal for services to the union and agricultural in Wales on Saturday (August 30).
FUW president Emyr Jones, who presented the medal, said: "Lorraine has been a member of the FUW for around 40 years. Her commitment and service to the union has been of tremendous value and we thank her for all she has done. I have no doubt that we can still count on her support for years to come.
"She has been a hardworking and conscientious member of the FUW and many standing committees and during this time we have recognised that Lorraine speaks her mind passionately and strongly, but constructively.
"She served as the union's Glamorganshire county vice chairman from 1989 to 1991, county chairman from 1991 to 1995 and was elected as South Wales member of the central finance and organisation committee in 2000 before being elected vice president in June 2011.
"Lorraine chaired the FUW's central common land committee for over 10 year's and is a past vice chairman of the central hill farming and marginal land committee. She is also representative on the Upland Forum.
"Recently she was elected president of the Welsh Black Cattle Society and her successful and renowned butchers shop Cig Mynydd Cymru, which she set up seven years ago with five fellow breeders in the Rhymney Valley, is testimony to her commitment to the farming industry."
Miss Howells, who farms Cwm Carno Farm, Rhymney, a hill farm extending to 220 acres mostly of reclaimed opencast land with common grazing, has been farming since 1974 at first in partnership with her grandparents, and then on her own.
Cwm Carno farm carries a suckler herd of pedigree Welsh Black cattle and South Wales Mountain ewes and has been in the family for over 100 years.
Miss Howells took early retirement from teaching at the local comprehensive school in 1997 to devote more time to farming.
