Increases in farmgate prices which properly reflect rises in wholesale prices for dairy produce are now long overdue, FUW milk committee chairman Eifion Huws claimed today.

Figures published by DairyCo last week revealed the wholesale prices of both butter and bulk cream rose by almost 70% in the 12 months to May 2010 while skimmed milk powder and mild cheddar rose by 30% and 12% respectively during the same period.

"In just the last month, the price of butter has increased by £400 per tonne and both mild cheddar and bulk cream have risen by £150 per tonne," added Mr Huws.

According to DairyCo, UK commodity prices have benefited from a rapid rise in European price levels, despite a slight rise in the value of Sterling against the Euro over the past month and butter prices are now are now £100 higher than the record price of £3,300/tonne seen in 2007.

Bulk has also benefited from rising export and domestic prices due to limited availability and strong Continental demand.

"It is high time that the primary producer started seeing some of this money being passed back in order to engender industry confidence," said Mr Huws. "Welsh Assembly Government figures suggest a fall in dairy farm incomes of 11% over the past year, so we are really looking to the dairy processors to make up for this fall."

New full-time students are being invited to write a 1,000-word essay on one of three topics about the future of Welsh farming suggested by the Farmers' Union of Wales which launches its annual £1,000 bursary on its stand at the Urdd National Eisteddfod tomorrow (Wednesday June 2).

The topics are:

* What challenges will climate change create for farming and food production in Wales over the next 50 years?

* What should the Welsh farming industry and government do to attract more young people into agriculture?

* How would you give the Welsh farming industry a facelift to attract more support and loyalty from the general public?

Last year the adjudicators decided to award £700 to the bursary winner, 19-year-old Harper Adams University College student Iestyn Russell.

Iestyn, of Cwmann, near Lampeter, Carmarthenshire, received his award from FUW president Gareth Vaughan on the union's stand at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair last December.

Iestyn, an enthusiastic member of Cwmann YFC and last year's Wales YFC best junior stockman, also worked on the family's dairy and sheep farm at Cwmann and on a neighbouring beef and sheep farm before deciding to go to university to study for a degree in rural enterprise and land management. "But my dream of farming is still as real as ever," he said.

Runner-up to Iestyn was 19-year-old David Evans, of Groeswen Farm House, Groeswen, Cardiff, who is studying for an agriculture BSc degree at Aberystwyth University. He received £200.

Third was 22-year-old Manod Williams, of Tregerddan, Bow Street, near Aberystwyth, who is also studying for BSc in agriculture with animal science at Aberystwyth. He received £100.

Full details on how to apply for the bursary are included in a leaflet available from the FUW's head office in Aberystwyth or at any of the union's local branch offices as well as on the FUW stand at the Eisteddfod.

The closing date for applications is October 1, 2010.

The Farmers' Union of Wales will be promoting Welsh food and farming during its biggest ever presence at the annual Urdd National Eisteddfod next week (May 31-June 5).

This year's venue - the National Trust's property at Llanerchaeron, near Aberaeron - is a rare example of a self-sufficient 18th-century Welsh farm estate which has survived virtually unaltered.

In a unique link-up with the National Trust, the FUW's new mobile display unit will be located on the Home Farm complex which has an impressive range of traditional, atmospheric outbuildings and is a working organic farm with Welsh Black cattle, Llanwenog sheep and rare Welsh pigs.

The union will also have its traditional stand on the Maes and members are welcome to pop in for a cuppa and a Welsh cake while Ceredigion YFC Federation will be holding various events there throughout the week including, on the opening day, setting a challenge for Wales YFC chairman Tim John to have his legs "waxed" and raise funds for the Kidney Wales Foundation.

A food and farm trail quiz-sheet has been compiled with all the answers available on a gentle stroll from the FUW stand on the Maes to the mobile unit via Llanerchaeron's walled gardens and farmyard.

A hamper of local food and drink will be the main prize for the quiz and a Llanerchaeron meat voucher and piggy banks will be the prizes for the lucky winners of a "guess the weight of three little pigs" competition.

Activities alongside the mobile unit begin on Tuesday with a bee-keeping demonstration by FUW's former Cardiganshire county executive officer Lewis Griffith who will repeat the demonstration on Thursday.

Also on Tuesday popular characters from S4C's Ceredigion-based children's programme Pentre Bach will be available to sign autographs and pose for photographs on the FUW stand between 11am and noon.

On the Wednesday and Thursday there will be intriguing displays at the mobile unit of the work of two Talgarreg rural craft exponents - Grug Jones, who makes unusual and artistic willow sculptures, and retired farmer Lloyd Jones, who has a fascinating collection of rope knots.

Meanwhile, the National Trust will also hold a series of events and talks at the farm complex throughout the week including regular shearing displays of local Llanwenog sheep plus an exhibition of various breeds of poultry.

There will also be an opportunity to visit the unique Geler Jones collection of farm machinery, carts, and rural artefacts housed in a purpose-built shed near the FUW mobile unit.

"The FUW is delighted to work with the National Trust to give visitors to the eisteddfod the chance to discover how a working farm produced enough food to make the estate self-sufficient," said the union's Ceredigion county executive officer Owen Jenkins.

"We sincerely hope that the young and not-so-young visitors will remember what both organisations are attempting to do - educate the public to appreciate that food security is one of today's major worldwide issues."

The Farmers' Union of Wales today warned farmers to double check their Single Application Form (SAF) acknowledgment slips after a series of computer scanning errors had been discovered.

"SAF scanning errors have been discovered by a number of our county executive offices across Wales and had these gone unnoticed our members could have lost significant sums of money," said FUW's Carmarthenshire county executive officer Meinir Bartlett.

"We are particularly concerned at the sheer number of errors that we have noticed on acknowledgement slips sent out by the Assembly Government to our members. Thankfully our staff and members have spotted these by cross-checking them against photocopies of their original SAF forms"

One discrepancy involving a Carmarthenshire FUW member showed a 5.28ha field scanned as 1.00ha, and out of a total of 74 field entries in the county, there were 12 scanning errors.

The breakdown of errors is: crosses declaring the intention to claim Single Payment on four fields not scanned; cross declaring the intention to claim Tir Mynydd on one field not scanned; details of field "statuses" not scanned on five occasions; and declaration of an intention to claim Glastir not scanned on two occasions.

"Had these errors by the Welsh Assembly Government not been picked up, they could have led to significant losses for the businesses concerned," said Mrs Bartlett.

"Every year the FUW deals with members who have lost significant sums of money due to minor errors on extremely complicated forms and some end up losing sums that are equivalent to their entire annual incomes.

"Very few of those people get their money back due to the strict enforcement of EU rules relating to obvious errors and exceptional circumstances.

"We fully appreciate that such errors are a part and parcel of normal life and that no system is infallible. But when it comes to farmers making equivalent errors, they have the book thrown at them and can be fined like criminals, even for placing a single tick in the wrong box.

"For those who have lost thousands of pounds and had the viability of their businesses put on the line due to errors that everyone - including officials - agrees were accidental, this will smack of one rule for them and one rule for us.

"But the bottom line is that this is firm evidence of the need to treat errors as errors, and allow them to be corrected without fining people, no matter whether the errors are made by farmers or the Welsh Assembly Government."