Recently by Gareth Wyn Jones

The Farmers' Union of Wales' Milk and Dairy Produce Committee has called for stricter border controls to prevent the importation of live animals infected with diseases.

Speaking after a recent meeting, FUW vice-president and committee chairman, Eifion Huws said: "While the current focus of concern is the importation of Bluetongue infected animals, animal imports also represent a danger through the introduction of a wide variety of other dangerous diseases."

In February the FUW called for a voluntary live animal import ban, due to the risks associated with importing Bluetongue (BTV) infected animals. However, under European trade rules individuals are entitled to import animals from other EU regions that have the same BTV status.

Mr Huws added: "We understand that, during routine on-farm testing of imported animals for BTV, a number of anomalies have come to light in terms of the paperwork associated with animals."

The committee emphasised the strict rules that must be adhered to when exporting animals from the UK, but expressed concern that these are not mirrored when it comes to animal imports from the continent.

In a letter to the Chief Veterinary Officer, Christianne Glossop, the union calls for action to be taken to ensure that the relevant authorities properly scrutinise all the necessary paperwork at UK borders, and, where necessary, take steps to minimise the risk of introducing diseases into UK livestock.

Dear reader/Annwyl ddarllenwr,

We are happy to inform you that the latest edition of Y Tir/Welsh Farmer is now available on-line at www.welshfarmer.com
Rydym yn falch o fedru eich hysbysu fod rhifyn diweddara' Y Tir/Welsh Farmer ar gael yn awr ar lein. Defnyddiwch y ddolen ganlynol: www.welshfarmer.com

Best regards,

Cofion gorau,

Peter Roberts, Editor/Golygydd
peter.roberts@fuw.org.uk

The Farmers' Union of Wales' Milk and Dairy Produce Committee has welcomed the appointment of Roger Evans as the new Chairman of the UK Dairy Farmers' Forum.

Mr Evans, who farms 350 acres in Shropshire with his son David, was elected Chairman of the Forum at a recent meeting in London.

Mr Evans runs a herd of 190 milkers, producing 1.3 million litres per year. He is a former Chairman of First Milk, and is the First Milk representative for Shropshire, Montgomeryshire and Worcestershire, as well as being an elected director of the co-operative.

Milk and Dairy Produce Committee Chairman Eifion Huws, who attended the meeting in London, said: "Mr Evans' thorough understanding of the dairy industry is invaluable, and I am delighted that he has agreed to lead the forum.

"I believe that this appointment will restore confidence in the Farmers' Forum, and I hope it will now play a more central role in advising Dairy UK on important issues within the industry."

During the meeting Rex Ward, a dairy farmer from Cornwall, was elected Vice Chairman. Both men will take a seat on the main Board of Dairy UK.

Mr Evans' appointment follows the resignation of Gwyn Jones from the Dairy UK Board and Farmers' Forum chairmanship in September.

The proposals to introduce electronic tagging of sheep and goats from January 2010 was the main topic discussed at the Annual General Meeting of the Farmers' Union of Wales, Denbighshire branch this week.

The three guest speakers, Jill Evans MEP, John Draycup, St Merryn's Meats and Union President Gareth Vaughan explained their views on the regulation. It was questioned whether the consumer wanted EID and whether it would provide better traceability. Mr Vaughan stated the Union would continue to lobby for the regulation to become voluntary for member states across Europe.

Other topics discussed included CAP reform, branding Welsh produce, livestock prices as well as supporting new entrants into the industry.

At the end of the meeting County Chairman Glyn Jones, said,"We thank the speakers and those members in attendance for an interesting and informative evening. We as a Union will continue to provide the industry with a strong voice ensuring our views are clearly heard, and taken fully into consideration."

MEMBERS of the Montgomeryshire branch of the Farmers' Union of Wales in the Tir Gofal agri-environment and Organic Farming schemes today met local AM Mick Bates to discuss their difficulties since changes were made to the administrative requirements of the schemes.

"The process of matching the different maps drawn up for each scheme with the Single Payment map is generating a lot of queries from Rural Payments Wales over very small areas of land and in a number of cases the same queries were being raised this year as last year," said the union's county executive officer Susan Jones.

"These queries are delaying validation of the Single Payment application forms which have also resulted in delays of Tir Gofal and Organic Farming Scheme payments.

"For some farmers this is resulting in cash flow issues when these payments are outstanding for more than six months.

"In previous years payments were received on the anniversary of the Agreement but since the EU required full validation of the SAF form to be complete before payment can be released, payment is unpredictable."

Tir Gofal was a ten-year agreement with a break at five years to review the programme of works. A number of farmers are waiting over 12 months to have the second half of their commitment to Tir Gofal signed.

The Organic Farming Scheme was intended to assist farmers through the period of organic conversion and the early years of organic production. The payment was to help them through this period when income is reduced.

Again due to mapping issues and validation being required before payments can be made this was affecting cash flow.

After the meeting, Montgomeryshire FUW County Chairman Arwel Rees said: "In today's financial climate these payments should be made as soon as possible.

"Farms are the same as any small business - borrowing money is costly in today's climate so you can understand farmer's frustrations when cash flows are affected by delayed payments from the Welsh Assembly.

"Many of the queries raised over mapping issues were including land not owned by the farmer. A typical mapping query would be over small areas of 0.01hecares of difference in habitat area declared.

"Members expressed their disappointment and lack of confidence with the schemes."

The Denbighshire branch of the Farmers' Union of Wales will raise a number of issues of concern with Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans during its annual general meeting and farm visit on Monday, November 3.

At 3.30pm, Ms Evans will be taken on a tour of the county chairman Glyn Jones' farm, Cwm y Geifr, Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, near Llangollen.

Mr Jones, who farms in partnership with his wife Lynne, said today: "We look forward to welcoming Ms Evans onto our farm and as so much of the legislation and rules within agriculture originate from Europe, this is an excellent opportunity for us to raise these with one of our elected representatives.

"The main concern is electronic identification (EID) of livestock and we hope that the 50 per cent of MEPs required to support Ms Evans's campaign calling on the EC to reconsider its plans to introduce the requirements from January 2010 is successful.

"From a personal point of view, this potentially could have a major negative impact on my business."

Other issues discussed will be welfare in transport, fallen stock, and the Single Payment Scheme.

Discussions will then move on at 7.30pm to the annual general meeting at the Lecture Theatre, Llysfasi College of Agriculture, near Ruthin where Ms Evans; John Dracup, from St Merryn's Meats; and FUW president Gareth Vaughan will address members.

The evening will be chaired by county president Arthur Roberts which will include the chairman's annual report on the union's activities within the county.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today urged farmers to make use of the vaccine against the Bluetongue 8 virus (BTV8) after the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) revealed it is considering selling off unwanted stocks.

"This potentially means a massive increased risk for Welsh livestock unless farmers act now," said FUW president Gareth Vaughan.

Only two million of the 7.5 million doses underwritten by the WAG have been taken up. Depending on the manufacturer that produces it, the vaccine costs from 55p for sheep and from £1.10 for cattle.

"But the uptake has been extremely disappointing and it is completely understandable that the WAG is looking to protect taxpayers' money by selling unwanted vaccine to other EU Member States.

"We urge farmers to vaccinate as soon as possible as the risk of BTV8 arriving and being transmitted is expected to continue until late December.

"Even if farmers are not planning to vaccinate until the Spring, I would advise them to purchase the vaccine now while it is available."

The number of BTV8 infected holdings in France continues to rise at a rate of thousands per week, with the current figure standing at around 20,000, and the disease is now present in most European countries.

That includes more northerly countries such as Sweden where it had originally been hoped that the colder climate would inhibit the transmission of the disease by midges.

"With Scotland planning a compulsory vaccination scheme from November, and areas of southern and eastern England having vaccinated around 80 per cent of their livestock, I am concerned that Wales could be left behind and suffer an outbreak," said Mr Vaughan.

"With only 20 per cent or so of Welsh animals currently vaccinated, an outbreak would be catastrophic."

A Carmarthenshire farmer was today rewarded for his diligent lifelong service to the Welsh dairy industry.

Ogwyn Evans was presented with the Farmers' Union of Wales-HSBC Bank plc Award for outstanding service to the Welsh dairy industry during the Welsh Dairy Show at Carmarthen.

United Counties Agricultural and Hunters Society chairman and a member of the judging panel, Lynn Davies, said: "Ogwyn has worked diligently for dairy farmers in Wales and I am delighted that he has won this highly prestigious award."

Mr Evans of Capel Farm, Bancycapel, Carmarthen, was the driving force behind the introduction of milk bars to Carmarthenshire schools. The initiative has ensured that milk is available on a daily basis in all Carmarthenshire Schools.

His farm has become an important assembly centre and staging post for the livestock export of Friesian bull calves.

At a recent First Milk regional representative election, Mr Evans was re-elected, with a comfortable majority, as local representative for the South Carmarthen area and is currently their Welsh media spokesperson.

Five years ago he was appointed a board member of Glas Cymru (the owners of Welsh Water) and was recently invited to serve a further term representing the agricultural industry in Wales.

At the 2006 Royal Welsh Show, he received a Fellowship from the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain for his services to agriculture.

Ogwyn is also a national judge for the LANTRA Young Trainee of the Year Award and is a consultative committee member with Coleg Sir Gar.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today highlighted the need for greater transparency throughout the dairy supply chain by claiming farmers are being short-changed.

"Whilst Tesco are demanding farmers reveal their accounts to an independent assessor or suffer a 0.5p per litre penalty, there is little or no such transparency further down the chain," said FUW's vice president Brian Walters at the Welsh Dairy Show in Carmarthen.

"The closest we have to transparency is data just published by DairyCo on the 2007 dairy supply chain margins," said Mr Walters, who runs an organic dairy farm a few miles from the Nantyci showground.

"These figures suggest that last year processors failed to pass prise rises on to farmers. However, this does not constitute anything like the transparency being demanded of farmers by Tesco."

The report - "Dairy Supply Chain Margins 2007 - concludes that the delay between increases in retail prices and farmgate price rises meant many farmers were short-changed by tens of thousands of pounds at a time of rapidly rising production costs.

"Consumers need to know whether hikes in prices at the till are being passed on to the primary producer or whether they are lining the pockets of fat cats," said Mr Walters.

"I believe that the public genuinely want to support British and Welsh farmers in order to stop the crisis facing domestic milk production and the mass exodus of farmers from the dairy industry.

"They are also becoming increasingly aware of the threat that global food shortages represent for the UK.

"Transparency throughout the food chain would be a significant step towards showing consumers and farmers who gets exactly what, and whether their money is going towards protecting future food supplies.

"Little do consumers know that supermarket margins on liquid milk rose by 2,700 per cent in the ten years leading up to 2007, whilst during the same period the farmers margin fell by five per cent," added Mr Walters.

The FUW has long called for transparency throughout all food supply chains and has presented evidence to this effect to numerous committees including the Welsh Affairs Committee and the Competition Commission.

Farmers' Union of Wales' livestock committee chairman Aeron Prysor Jones has reacted angrily to a decision by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to await a further report before raising the cattle BSE testing limit to 48 months.

Mr Jones, a beef and cattle farmer from Bala, North Wales, said: "Despite admitting that there is an overwhelming scientific case supporting the raising of the BSE testing limit to 48 months, the FSA Board and the Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee (SEAC) have created hurdles that could delay the lifting of the limit and cost the beef industry millions."

The FSA board had been expected to agree to a proposal to increase the testing limit from January 1, 2009.

The decision was made in spite of a comprehensive analysis produced by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) which concluded that even if the testing limit was raised to 60 months, the risk to humans would effectively be zero.

While the Board agreed that the proposed increase in the testing limit was scientifically watertight, they expressed concern that a fall in monitoring could mean a sudden increase in BSE cases in younger animals would be missed.

"They have accepted the scientific arguments, so deferring their decision pending the production of a report is completely disproportionate.

"Passive surveillance suggests that disease prevalence is just one fiftieth of a percent of what it was in 1993, on top of which we have the VLA analysis and strict rules about the removal of Specified Risk Material (SRM).

"If they are worried about such an negligible risk, then I am surprised they have the bottle to get out of bed in the morning for fear of being struck by meteorites," added Mr Jones.

"The Board could easily have agreed to the proposals while asking experts to look at the monitoring issue in parallel.

"After all, the probability of a sudden increase in BSE cases between now and, say, May, is effectively zero. If they want to look at long term monitoring - for example by random sampling taken from fallen stock -then they could consider doing so over the coming months without holding up what should be a major step forward for the industry."

Mr Jones also expressed concern that the FSA might call for the testing limit of fallen cattle to be kept at 24 months at a time when DEFRA plan to lift it to 48 months.

"With DEFRA planning to transfer the costs of BSE testing of fallen cattle to farmers from January 12, 2009, a failure to raise the age limit to 48 months would result in increased costs for farmers ."

The FSA Board will again consider raising the testing limit to 48 months in December, by which time it is hoped that the requested report will have been produced by DEFRA.