September 2009 Archives

Former Farmers' Union of Wales president Hubert Robert Môn Hughes OBE, affectionately known as HRM, died in hospital at Bangor last night (Wednesday, September 16), aged 85.

He is survived by his wife Olive, daughters Ann and Mair and sons Eifion, Bleddyn and Aled. All three sons are farmers and Eifion is a current FUW vice president and chairman of the union's milk and dairy produce committee.

"I will remember my father for the passion that came out in his voice during his speeches as president - he always hit a nerve. He was also a passionate believer in the Ayreshire cattle breed which he admired for their longevity," said Eifion today.

Current FUW president Gareth Vaughan also remembered HRM for his great passion and the concern he showed for the major issues of the day. "He was a very powerful orator and an effective debater.

"I think history will also prove he was a firm negotiator and would not give an inch when he knew he was right. He was involved with everything to do with Wales and Welshness."

HRM succeeded the late Myrddin Evans as president in 1984 and stood in the post for seven years. Shortly after his election, a Farmers Weekly profile by Robert Davies stated that it would be difficult to find two more contrasting personalities.

"While the Evans style of leadership was laconic and unflappable, Mr Hughes has a justifiable reputation for emotional rhetoric and passionate commitment to causes, a characteristic which often leaves him lost for words, even in his first language of Welsh.

"While some members might regret the passing of urbane diplomacy from the old FUW leader, nobody questions HRM's absolute honesty and total dedication to the union."

HRM was born at Penrhos, the then family's 25-acre smalholding at Bodedern, Holyhead, Anglesey. After spending several years as a farm labourer and farm bailiff in Carmarthenshire he returned to Penrhos in 1951 and by 1984 he was running 320 acres with 112 Ayreshires.

In October 1989 HRM led a four-man FUW negotiating team in merger talks with NFU representatives which failed to make any progress after two hours.

According to Welsh journalist Handel Jones' book A Family Affair on the story of the FUW from 1955 to 1992, HRM stressed after the meeting that the FUW went into the talks with hope and determination to resolve the differences between both unions.

"The negotiations broke down because we failed to reconcile our objective of a fully independent union for the farmers of Wales, working within a federal framework in the UK, and the desire of NFU Headquarters to maintain its jurisdiction over Wales," he added.

"It must be emphasised that the FUW was established in 1955 with the basic and all-important aim of having a fully autonomous union for Welsh farmers with the freedom to produce and pursue the agricultural policies which it considered would be in the best interests of the farmers of Wales.

"There can be no dilution of this all-important principle - there is no half-way house. We have ambition plans for the future."

After being awarded the OBE for services to agriculture in the Queen's 1987 Birthday Honours List, HRM held several meetings at the beginning of 1990 with banking representatives to discuss the crippling impact of 15 per cent interest rates.

Many farmers who had borrowed heavily in an attempt to increase their efficiency found themselves in dire financial straits. A growing number decided the FUW was best able to represent them during a time of great uncertainty and hardship.

Consequently, the union had enrolled more than 500 new members during the previous 12 months.

HRM was also a local councillor on Anglesey for 27 years. He was chairman of the governors of Bodedern primary and secondary schools, president of Anglesey Show in 1990, a lay preacher in the Baptist Church and was admitted to the gorsedd at the 1987 Porthmadog National Eisteddfod.

Welsh farmers need the support of the public and the public purse if they are to manage their land to meet the effect of climate change, the Assembly's rural affairs minister Elin Jones said today.

Fielding questions from Farmers' Union of Wales and FWAG Cymru members on a Meirionnydd farm overlooking the picturesque Mawddach estuary, Ms Jones was asked about the Assembly's proposed Glastir scheme which will replace agri-environment schemes such as Tir Mynydd.

"There is a requirement to look again at such schemes to make them more responsive to CAP demands. There is a need to look more closely at other issues than previously such as water management and climate change," she said.

"It is not about what a visual landscape looks like any longer. It's about issues like the carbon content of our soil in upland Wales and retaining those soils is important when talking about climate change.

"Farmers are going to be actively involved in those discussions. I have always thought that if society wants a landowner to manage his land in such a way it is right that the public contribute financially to that.

"That is a strong argument why there needs to be public and public financial support for land management and you must remember my decision to introduce Glastir was taken before Alistair Darling decided to bail out the banks."

Ms Jones added that Tir Mynydd will continue to be paid in 2010 and 2011. "I believe in having a long transition period before Glastir is introduced," she told her 140-strong audience who enjoyed a buffet lunch of lamb supplied by the hosts, FUW's new county chairman Robert Wynne Evans and his family, of Sylvain Farm, Barmouth.

Dealing with questions on bovine TB, she said eradication of the disease is a long-term aspiration and she had decided to test all cattle herds in Wales annually.

"I accept it is an additional burden on farmers but the EC is particularly keen to stress managing TB is no longer an option - we must eradicate it."

Responding to questions about the Assembly's scheme for new entrants into farming, the minister agreed the maximum £15,000 grant available was not enough to buy a farm but it could help them to enter into a family partnership.

"I think it will stimulate young people into believing Government and their own family want them to stay in farming."

On the controversial question of electronic identification of sheep (EID), Ms Jones said she was not convinced that it was necessary for the control of disease but the EC and other big member states had lost patience with the UK and Ireland attempts to delay its introduction.

"So, as the minister in Wales, I have stepped over the divide as I have no choice other than to implement this in Wales and because I have been working with the farming unions in resisting this we have to try and achieve some of the concessions that may have been available earlier."

RURAL affairs minister Elin Jones today (Tuesday September 15) discovered successful diversification is the key to success when she visited a family farm run by the Farmers' Union of Wales' new Meirionnydd county branch chairman Robert Wynne Evans.

The farm - three miles north-east of Barmouth - overlooks Cardigan Bay and extends to 1,290 acres. Forty-year-old Mr Evans also runs the 120-acre Bryn Odol farm at Tudweiliog on the Llyn Peninsula bought 20 years ago.

A flock of 1,000 of Welsh Mountain ewes are kept at Sylfaen, together with 320 ewe lambs as annual replacements which are over wintered at Tudweiliog.

Most of the lambs are finished on the farm and sold at Bryncir fatstock market or direct to Janann meats. The breeding ewes are sold annually at Dolgellau market.

A herd of 70 suckler cows is kept, one-third of which are pedigree Welsh Blacks. A Charolais bull is used to cross 50% of the herd with Charolais calves sold at 18 to 24-months-old as stores at Bryncir or Dolgellau market.

Some Welsh Black cattle are kept on and fattened and sold through the ABP abattoir at Ellesmere at 29 months.

Fifty-five acres of pit silage is harvested annually at Sylfaen and some extra land as big bales. Some 50 acres of silage is also harvested at Bryn Odol where a slatted floor shed was built to house 85 cattle with the help of a Farm Improvement Grant. Contractors are used for pit silage making.

Sylfaen farm was bought by Robert's father Gwynfor and uncle Glyn in 1982. Robert and his twin brothers Dylan and Geraint worked on the farm until 2002 when they joined their father after Glyn left the partnership.

The farm was one of the first to join the Tir Cymen Scheme when Meirionnydd was chosen as a pilot area in the early 1990s.

It benefited greatly from the scheme and later joined the Tir Gofal scheme under which capital works have been carried out, including stone walling and fencing, which have contributed greatly to the landscape.

The family have successfully diversified over the years. Robert's father and 38-year-old brothers now also run Islaw'r ffordd Caravan Park in Talybont, near Barmouth.

And Robert and his brothers own Henry's Bar, Billy's Bingo amusement arcade and the camp shop at Islaw'r ffordd, plus the nearby Ysgethin Inn, as part of the Evans Brothers Properties company.

Robert uses his lorry for haulage of hay, straw and fodder beet and delivers and spreads basic slag and lime to neighbouring farms in the area.

Recently he began a business of log cutting as firewood involving the purchase of a specialist machine for this purpose.

He has been active in the FUW for many years. He was elected vice-chairman of the Ardudwy branch in 2007 and chairman in June this year. He attends the union's Grand Council at Aberystwyth.

He is a member of the Meirionnydd Royal Welsh Show Advisory Committee and of the Bryncelynog Group of Meirionnydd farmers - funded by Farming Connect - who meet regularly to discuss ideas on their farming systems.

He is also chairman of Ardudwy Training Group - which developed from the old ATB Group - which is active and meets regularly.

He farms in partnership with his father, who was chairman of the FUW's county branch in the early 1990s, and bought Sylfaen in 1982 with his brother.

The event, arranged in conjunction with FWAG Cymru, was attended by around 140 FUW members who enjoyed a lunch of lamb donated by Robert.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today revealed Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority granted permission for a permanent dwelling on a farm after the union helped the applicant compile records and details to demonstrate the farm's viability.

Park authority officers had recommended refusal of the application by farmer John Phillips, of Nant y Mynydd, Cwm Gwaun, Fishguard, but he won an 11th hour reprieve in July after asking the FUW to compile a report to help justify the application which has now been granted.

"We were approached at a late hour to report on the financial viability of Mr Phillips''enterprise," said FUW business development director Emyr James.

"We were pleased to be part of a group of people supporting this application and that we were able to provide the written evidence the authority required. It must have been an extremely stressful period for John Phillips and his family."

Controversy had raged over the application for more than 30 years since Mr Phillips was first granted temporary consent for a residential caravan in 1974, which had been renewed until 1998.

A number of later applications to build a small house were refused and now, to add insult to injury, the authority had instructed Mr Phillips to remove his mobile home by October of this year.

The plight of the family was the subject of an S4C current affairs documentary "Y Byd Ar Bedwar" earlier this year.

"There was imminent danger that they would be turned out of their home where they had lived and worked their patch of Pembrokeshire all their lives like their forefathers before," said Mr James.

The authority received nine letters in support of the application, one of which referred to a petition of more than 100 names, and it was also backed by Cwm Gwaun Community Council.

Mr James also welcomed proposed Welsh Assembly Government changes to planning guidance announced recently by environment, sustainability and housing minister Jane Davidson.

"They will be of tremendous benefit to the farming community and rural areas. They recognise the fact that the rural economy is a dynamic process which needs to adapt to ever-changing circumstances.

"They are also something the FUW has been campaigning for, for many years, and we will be actively engaged in the consultancy process to draw up the appropriate guidelines."

Under the proposals, Technical Advice Note (TAN) 6 is being reviewed to provide more opportunities for new affordable housing for local people and to broaden the scope of essential dwellings.

"TAN 6 is about meeting the needs of rural areas and helping to attract young people into farming by providing opportunities to build a second house on an established farm.

"It will encourage the 22 local and three National Park authorities to work with rural communities to identify opportunities for affordable housing and to diversify the rural economy.

"We share the views of a number of progressive individuals who believe that the concept of a National Park is meaningless unless the rural communities within the Park are viable, sustainable and vibrant," added Mr James.