[caption id="attachment_6303" align="alignleft" width="300"] FUW Senior Policy Officer Dr Hazel Wright[/caption]

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has hosted a successful Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZs) road show for its members across Wales, in order to highlight the proposed changes to NVZs and to get members views on the consultation document.

FUW Senior Policy Officer Dr Hazel Wright said: “As stipulated in the EC Nitrates Directive, the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales, have undertaken a review of the existing NVZ areas in Wales, and have assessed if any new areas need to be designated.”

Two options are outlined in the consultation, namely, the continuation of the discrete approach to designation or the designation of the whole of Wales as a NVZ. A continuation of the discrete approach would see an increase in the amount land designated as an NVZ in Wales from 2.4% to 8%.

Dr Wright added: “The Union has been involved in the review and has made its concerns clear over the past months. We have held constructive meetings with our membership across Wales and will submit an official response to the consultation by the end of December. If any of our members have not made their voice heard on this yet, I urge them to contact their county office as soon as possible.”

The Farmers’ Union of Wales is urging shoppers to keep their Christmas shopping local to show support for rural and local businesses.

FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “As we speed towards Christmas, I would like to urge you to think about your rural businesses and see if you can buy local, either for the upcoming Christmas dinner or even gifts for family and friends.

“Speak to your local butcher about meat for the Christmas period and see what your local farm shop has to offer - I promise you will find many of the ingredients you need for your Christmas dinner right on your doorstep.

“There are also plenty of small shops around that offer Welsh craft and locally designed gifts and of course the choice for local food gifts is aplenty. It really is worth having a look. These are small decisions we can make that will have a big impact on our rural economy.

“A pound spent locally will go much further than a pound spent in a chain store and it keeps our rural economies going. By supporting our local businesses we don’t help a CEO buy a third holiday home but we help a local mum and dad put food on the table, a family pay their mortgage, a little girl get those dance lessons and a little boy get his favourite team shirt.”

The Farmers’ Union of Wales is sponsoring the free WIFI at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair, held in Builth Wells on Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 November, in order to highlight the importance of digital inclusion across Wales.

“We still have over 15 percent of our population digitally excluded and even those that are connected still suffer poor performance in terms of speed and reliability. There are urban networks delivering speeds of up to 200MBps - way in excess of the 10 Mbps seen in some rural areas,” said FUW Managing Director Alan Davies.

“2 percent of our population produce around 60 percent of our food. Yet there is a significant part of that 2 percent who remain unable to connect to the internet from their farms. To highlight this problem the FUW is proud to be the official sponsor of the free Wifi available at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair,” added Mr Davies.

The FUW has stressed on many occasions that those without a connection cannot diversify their businesses, that they cannot support children with homework as many need to do and that they cannot connect readily with Government programmes for advice and support payments as they are mandated to do.

Mr Davies further said: “In simple terms our rural areas are still being left behind and the gap continues to widen. But over and above all that, they cannot benefit from the wider impact of digital technology that is racing through many parts of the world. If you are not familiar with the digital world you will find it far harder to adopt new and innovative practices that could transform businesses.”

The FUW acknowledges that much progress has been made over the years to include more and more people in the digital world in Wales but  there is still more to be done; particularly to reach the most remote groups, those families that are farming our land to produce the food we eat and care for our natural habitat and landscapes, who can often be found in the most rural areas of Wales.

“We must not underestimate how important it is that we get every part of Wales connected and exploiting digital technologies in order to ensure that we can help make farming and rural businesses more effective and efficient through that connectivity and help more people to a brighter digital future,” added Mr Davies.

[caption id="attachment_7273" align="alignleft" width="300"] UW Ceredigion young farmers talk about #FarmingMatters with Dunbia[/caption]

Young farmers from Ceredigion recently came together to discuss #FarmingMatters and the future of lamb exports with Dunbia (Llanybydder) Managing Director, Paul Edwards and Agricultural Manager, Alison Harvey.

The meeting, which was organised by the Ceredigion branch of the Farmers’ Union of Wales, was held at the Llanybydder site and delegates heard how the plant is going from strength to strength, since the site was taken over from Oriel Jones in 2001.

The Llanybydder plant today has a weekly 300 tonne retail capacity, including slaughter capacity for 33,000 lambs per week and employs approximately 600 people.

Speaking after the visit, FUW Ceredigion County Executive Officer Mared Rand Jones said: “ It was a great meeting and really useful for our young farmers to hear what the future holds for lamb exports from a processor's point of view.

“We discussed many farming matters including Brexit, how to get more lamb on the shelves here at home, TSE regulations and the progress made in exporting our lamb to the US.”

Following the discussions, delegates enjoyed a tour around the factory and followed the full process from slaughter to packaging.

“The tour of the factory was really interesting - seeing the full process from slaughter to packaging the final product is something I would fully recommend to anyone in the business,” added Mared Rand Jones.

Dunbia (Llanybydder) Managing Director, Paul Edwards said: “It is very important that we, as a supply chain, engage with each other, and welcoming a group of young farmers to the factory is an ideal way to do this.

“There is nothing better than seeing the actual product and meeting people who work directly in the business.  It is always valuable to engage with young people in the industry and to hear their views.

“We had a good discussion before the tour, and I was really heartened by their enthusiasm and passion to promote Welsh Beef and Lamb, through closer collaboration between producer, processor and the consumer.”