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The Black Mountain looked splendid today in bright autumn sunshine, but the welcome spot of clear weather provided little comfort for Huw and Mary Davies who've lost an incredible 150 sheep this year to rustlers.

I've went to meet them on their 350 acre farm near Gwynfe in Carmarthenshire where they keep sheep and a suckler beef herd.

Each year they send hundreds of sheep to graze on common land up on the mountain which stands opposite their farm.

Last month, they went to collect the stock down from the hills and realised for the first time that there were significantly fewer in the flock than there should have been.

'It's so disheartening' Huw told me as we went to look at the breeding ewes in a field behind the main house, 'we've lost a few sheep every year, but nothing on this scale.'

It's making me seriously consider whether I'll be using the mountain in future. But the thing is, without stock up on the hills, there'll be no way of grazing and maintaining the mountain.'

I mentioned rustling was a growing problem a few weeks ago, but this is the first time I've managed to find someone willing to talk about their experiences.

Pride could be an issue, or ongoing investigations but for Huw and Mary, those considerations have been put aside and they've decided it's time to talk.

'We just feel that the more publicity there is, the better the chances of catching the people who do this' said Mary.

But with a strict tagging system in place, and passports for further identification, it's hard to believe that the thieves can get away with it.

I asked Huw if he'd considered dying the sheep a bright colour as other farmers in the UK have done in the past in a desperate attempt to deter the criminals. Huw said he'd already tried it.

Huw rounding up his sheep.

More practical possibly is the decision to see if they can set up a Farmwatch scheme in the area. It's a scheme that's done well in other parts of Wales, where farmers are texted by the Police as soon as there's an incident in their area, to make them more alert to possible criminal activity.

Although if you've got sheep grazing on a mountain far from the farm, it's difficult to see how you could do more to protect the stock.

But if farmers stop using common land, it would mean the end of a farming tradition which has been in place for centuries.

In the meantime, Huw and Mary have got to face huge financial losses following the disappearance of so many sheep.

Huw has even offered a £5,000 reward to catch the criminals and a neighbour has offered to double that amount, but so far even that sum of money hasn't produced any new information.

And with lamb prices soaring at the moment, the worry is that rustling could become more widespread.