Dennis Matheson: 80 years old and still going strong on farm

Dennis Matheson farms alone. He has no descendants and now has very little help, in part because his helpers have all retired.

He is a lifetime tenant of a farm once owned by his stepfather, which is part of a much larger estate on the English-Welsh border.

His land is particularly hilly and rocky, with streams running through the fields and rivers dividing them. It’s pretty, but unforgiving.

Photographer Andrew Cameron spent 24 hours alongside Dennis in August this year, observing and documenting the daily realities on a Welsh farm. Here is his report.

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Dennis sets out from his cottage every morning in his trusty Land Rover, opening and closing gates, driving up steep hills and negotiating rocks, bogs and equally steep descents to check on the welfare of his animals.

“I farm because it’s fun. When it stops being fun, then I’ll give it up,” Dennis tells me.

Dennis Matheson feeding cattle © Andrew Cameron

That he’s passionate about farming is a given, but he’s extremely concerned by food security and the apparent blasé attitude of governments towards the farming sector.

“I don’t think they realise how precarious things are,” he says.

When it comes to farming, he’s seen it all and nothing phases him.

Shortly after I arrived at the farm, I heard the sound of a quad bike and Dennis emerged, all smiles despite a failed attempt to round-up a group of cattle that had broken through into a neighbour’s field.

Of course, in August 2026 we were experiencing the hottest year on record and for Dennis the priority was to ensure that his livestock had a supply of fresh water, all of which was pumped from underground wells and the river.

“All the streams have dried up, I’ve never seen it like that.”

When checking one field and discovering a calf was missing, we set off to find it.

We checked around the perimeter and found the calf had got itself stuck in a bog – yes, an underwater spring was keeping a small area wet and the calf had gone in search of water. It had fallen over and trapped its head in the roots of a tree.

Dennis went in search of pulleys and rope while I freed the calf’s head.

Dennis Matheson rescuing a calf © Andrew Cameron

He returned and promptly got to work with the rope, attaching one end to a tree and the other to the calf, and then we pulled.

It took both of us to pull the calf free and put it into the sitting position to recover its strength.

And so the challenges continued. The tyre on the Land Rover needed changing, pumps needed priming, water pipes needed unblocking, fences needed to be checked, gates left open needed to be closed again.

Dennis never stopped from the moment we met until the moment I Ieft.

It takes an extraordinary person to want to do this kind of physical and unpredictable work at the age of 80, and Dennis doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.

More about Dennis Matheson

Dennis Matheson feeding the cattle © Andrew Cameron

For 80-year-old Welsh tenant farmer Dennis Matheson, more than four decades on the same holding have seen farming change from an enjoyable way of life to a struggle against rising workloads, regulation and labour shortages.

Dennis did not grow up in a farming family, but his love of the countryside led him to Australia in 1968, where he gained experience on sheep and cattle stations.

After returning to Britain and managing dairy farms in North Wales, he took on his Mid Wales tenancy in 1982.

Now farming largely alone, he runs 600 Welsh ewes, 30 suckler cows and a small arable enterprise.

This year’s difficult barley harvest has highlighted the pressures of working alone, while gathering cattle for TB testing requires several people to move livestock through narrow village roads.

Digital administration adds further challenges, with poor rural connectivity making online services difficult to access.

Dennis worries that farmers are increasingly stretched between paperwork, livestock and fieldwork, with fewer people to share the workload.

Despite the pressures, working with livestock remains rewarding.

“Lambing is wonderful, isn’t it? Something coming into life – and calving, you know, it’s enjoyable,” he says.