FW Awards: 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award

A farmer all her life, a fantastic advocate for agriculture and a role model for young people, Margaret Dalton is the winner of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award. 

In her late 80s and still as passionate as ever about farming, she continues to produce top-quality livestock on her West Wales farm.

It’s a spot she came to more than 60 years ago with her husband Don, who passed away in 1976, aged just 40.

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards 2024: Lifetime Achievement

When Don passed away in 1976, aged just 40, Margaret juggled raising a young family with running the Llangybi hill farm and still found the time to contribute to numerous positions within the Welsh agricultural industry.

“These roles gave her the opportunity to do what she does best, speaking up for the industry and championing food and farming,” says NFU Cymru/NFU Mutual Tregaron group secretary Heather Holgate.

Heather describes Margaret as a “matriarch” of the local community, saying her achievements have made her a trailblazer for women in farming.

“I know her story has been a source of inspiration for many people. Margaret is revered locally and much further afield. She is adored by her family and a true inspiration to us all.”

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, says that Margaret not just kept an embryonic farming business going, but over the years built on it in the spirit and ambition they shared.

She created a diverse and successful farm that is providing opportunities for her sons and grandsons.

“We’ve thankfully made huge strides in encouraging and recognising the importance of women in farming, but Margaret was doing this long before it became the norm, and she has been a leader in a positive change of attitude to women in farming,” says Phil.

Margaret is a former NSA Cymru/Wales chairman and has taken on roles in her county NFU branch, agricultural discussion group and show society. 

She received the NSA George Hedley Memorial Award in 2013 for her outstanding contribution to the sheep industry, and an OBE in 2001 for services to agriculture and the community.

John Thorley, founding secretary of the NSA, says Margaret’s strong will and sense of humour have been important assets in her lifetime of dedication to – and campaigning on behalf of – farmers. 

“Never one to give up easily on any matter about which she felt strongly, Margaret became a leading voice in the campaign to get a change in the law to allow the legal production of ‘smokies’, the skin-on sheepmeat delicacy produced for the west African population.

“Margaret is very understated, but has a huge amount of insight and wisdom. She was a great friend of the late Henry Plumb and has contributed to his legacy by becoming a mentor for the foundation he established to help the next generation.”

Heather says: “Margaret has lived and breathed farming all her life and her passion for the hands-on, day-to-day job has never waned during that time. Her enthusiasm for farming and rural communities knows no bounds.”