November 2009 Archives

THE Farmers' Union of Wales today demanded that the Welsh Assembly Government's Tir Mynydd scheme should be extended and that the implementation date for the proposed Glastir scheme be postponed due to numerous concerns.

Under WAG plans Tir Mynydd, a compensatory payment that recognises the Less Favoured (LFA) status of 80% of Wales's land, will be replaced with Glastir, an all‑Wales agri‑environmental scheme.

However, the FUW believes that there are now strong grounds for extending the Tir Mynydd scheme and delaying the introduction of the Glastir scheme.

Under the current proposals, the last Tir Mynydd scheme year will be 2010 while the Glastir scheme will not start until 2012, meaning there is a 12‑month gap without any LFA or similar scheme running.

Chairman of the FUW's hill farming and marginal land committee, Powys sheep farmer Derek Morgan said: "The budget for the 2011 Tir Mynydd scheme was originally set at £25 million, which would normally have been paid in early 2012. Yet this money seems to have been shifted, leaving a 12‑month period with no scheme running.

"There are also complex issues that need addressing in terms of the new Glastir scheme, particularly with regard to the precise scheme rules and farmers' inability to make business decisions based on unknown outcomes of current negotiations.

"There are also major questions about how the scheme will operate on the common land that is so crucial to many regions of Wales.

"The FUW remains fundamentally opposed to the abandonment of Tir Mynydd and its replacement with a non‑LFA scheme. Notwithstanding this, we believe that there is now significant justification for postponing the 2012 Glastir implementation date.

"Significant concerns include the finalising of scheme rules and the relaying of these to farmers, so that they can properly assess the scheme, the need for a full economic impact analysis, and the completion and analysis of pilot studies that will assess the potential impact of the new scheme."

Due to these concerns, rural affairs minister Elin Jones has agreed to meet with the FUW in mid‑December.

THE Welsh uplands are the very reason why Wales exists, the vice chairman of the Farmers' Union of Wales' hill farming committee told an Assembly inquiry today.

"They not only symbolise Wales but also define Wales," Bedwyr Jones, who farms on the slopes of Snowdon, told the Assembly's rural development sub-committee visiting Tregaron as part of its inquiry into the future of the Welsh uplands.

"Many of those here today have travelled from all over Wales to get to Tregaron, and the vast majority of those journeys will have been spent travelling through the uplands. This reflects the fact that the uplands not only symbolise Wales, but also define Wales.

"The uplands dominate our country, and are the very reason why Wales exists. When we talk about the future of the uplands we are, therefore, talking about the future of what defines Wales in terms of our landscape, our culture, and our communities."

He reminded the sub-committee that the FUW is "privileged to share a site" with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, near Aberystwyth. "Many of you will remember the institution when it was called the Plant Breeding Station - or the PBS.

"One of the driving forces behind the establishment of the PBS, almost ninety years ago, was the recognition of the need to prevent rural depopulation. In Wales, that primarily means depopulation of the uplands.

"And there can be little doubt that the PBS did crucial work that reduced the rate of depopulation by making upland farming more sustainable, as did later moves such as the 1946 Hill Farming Act, and the 1951 Livestock Rearing Act.

"Such measures not only helped sustain farming families in the uplands - they also sustained the landscape and environment of the uplands since even our most remote regions are a product of agricultural management.

"While the interdependence of agriculture and nature has long been recognised, scientists are, even now, discovering new relationships and dangers that exist for our flora and fauna as a result of decreasing farming activities in our uplands.

"The Less Favoured Area Tir Mynydd scheme has long served to prevent such reductions in agricultural activities, and it is regretful that the Welsh Assembly has decided to replace it with a more burdensome and bureaucratic scheme that may severely disadvantage the uplands.

"However, the FUW is committed to doing what it can to minimise the impact of Glastir, and is urging the Assembly to do all it can to ensure that the delivery of the scheme does not disadvantage Wales's upland communities.

"Losing those communities, for which farming represents the financial, social, and cultural hub, means losing our landscapes and environments, and I do not believe that this is something any stakeholder wishes to see."

Welsh dairy farmers are demanding better prices for their milk following a big improvement in world and EU markets for butter, milk powder, cheese and cream over the past few months.

"We understand that there is, inevitably, a delay between increasing world prices and those in the UK but this should be reflected in our milk cheques much sooner than it is," said the chairman of the Farmers' Union of Wales milk and dairy produce committee, Anglesey farmer Eifion Huws.

World butter and milk powder markets started rising in July, with the EU following about a month later, and even in the past month butter has increased by $600/t (20 per cent).

The rise is far greater for whole milk powder with New Zealand co-op Fonterra's monthly on-line auction price soaring by 88 per cent in just four months to $3,400/t. Meanwhile, cream prices have more than doubled since February to a record £1700/t, representing an income of 9.6p per litre (ppl).

"But the processors are crying wolf and making all kinds of excuses for not passing these increases down the chain to the producers," said Mr Huws.

"According to the latest Defra figures, the UK farm gate milk price this year ranged from 20.60ppl in May to 25.56ppl in January. Since then the world and EU prices have shot up but the UK farmgate price in September of 24.05ppl was still 2.50ppl lower than for September last year.

"The milk buyers are hiding behind all sorts of reasons for not passing on their profits to farmers yet they pay regular lip service in support of a long-term sustainable future for the sector.

"But faced with ever-increasing costs dairy farmers are increasingly leaving the industry - the number of dairy farms in Wales dropped by 670 between 2005 and 2008 and there are now barely 2,000 left. If processors don't play their part they may soon discover most of their loyal suppliers will have disappeared altogether."

NOTE TO EDITORS: Welsh-speaking Eifion Huws can be contacted on: 07711686757.

The Farmers' Union of Wales' Caernarfon county branch will stage its annual general meeting at Woodlands Hall Hotel, Edern, near Nefyn, on Friday, November 27 at 7.30pm in partnership with HSBC Bank.

Guest speakers will be FUW president Gareth Vaughan, Caernarfon MP Hywel Williams, Bangor University's Prof Deri Tomos who has achieved an international reputation in the field of plant physiology, and Gerald Miles, an organic farmer from North Pembrokeshire who has campaigned tirelessly against the use of GMOs for many years.

Topic of the evening will be how to ensure a sufficient supply of food in the future and a debate on whether our politicians should allow the use of GMOs.

FUW's county executive officer Gwynedd Watkin said: "All members are welcome, and with a wealth of experience among our four guest speakers, it promises to be an interesting and informative evening.

"Following the speakers' addresses there will be a question and answer session, where members will have the opportunity to contribute to the debate."

NOTE TO EDITORS: The media is invited to attend the meeting. If you intend to do so please contact FUW County Executive Officer Gwynedd Watkin on 01286 672 541.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today described a 43-9 vote by Assembly Members in support of The Tuberculosis Eradication Order 2009 as a victory for common sense and democracy.

The Order gives the Assembly Government the powers to use culling and vaccination of badgers as part of its bTB eradication programme.

Speaking after sitting through the debate, FUW's TB spokesman Brian Walters said: "Assembly Members have already supported the principle of badger culling more than once, and this vote ratifies the cross-party support for that policy.

"During a recent consultation on this issue, 85% of Welsh respondents were in agreement that culling should be considered as part of a bTB control strategy, and I am glad that AMs have recognised the need to act in order to prevent the spread of this devastating disease."

However, Mr Walters, a Carmarthen organic dairy farmer, was concerned that some AMs had allowed themselves to be persuaded to vote against the Welsh Assembly Government.

"Some of those who spoke in support of annulling the Order had clearly failed to understand the scientific evidence on this issue and some AMs even suggested that there was no established link between bTB in cattle and badgers, which goes against the opinion of every single expert on the matter.

"The chairman of the Rural Affairs Sub Committee, Alun Davies, made a crucial point that, when you analyse the evidence properly, as his committee has done, it points to infected badgers being largely responsible for the epidemic we are now facing."

Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones told AMs that the order had been laid following a 14-week public consultation and was fully supported by scientific evidence.

Last year, over 12,000 cattle were culled in Wales because of bTB and nearly ££25 million was spent in compensation. Wales has already slaughtered over 8,000 cattle this year. This time last year it was just over 7,000.

By 2014, the cost to the taxpayer could be ££80 million if action to eradicate TB in cattle is not taken.

Welsh farmers can be forgiven for asking the question: "Which Roger Evans do you mean?"

Unusually, there are three Roger Evans's prominent in the dairy industry and they were all present at the recent FUW's eve of Welsh Dairy Show reception.

And the FUW's photographer grasped the opportunity to take this picture in a bid to clarify the situation.

Pictured (from left) is Carmarthenshire FUW member Roger Evans OBE, the Welsh Dairy Show's current president and a former chairman of Milk Marque and of the Dairy Council's executive board; Roger Evans, who sits on the Assembly's Dairy Development Centre steering committee and hosted an FUW-organised visit to his farm near Carmarthen before the reception; and Roger Evans, First Milk farmer director and board member of Dairy UK, who runs a 350-acre farm in Shropshire with his son David.