Dylasau Uchaf, a National Trust tenant farm, is home to the Roberts family. Glyn and his daughter Beca keep a watchful eye on the land and livestock here in the Eidda valley, hidden away between the upper Conwy and the Machno. The sheep and beef farm is about 4 miles from Betws y Coed and 3 miles from Ysbyty Ifan. 

A lot has changed up here in the last 5 years, says Glyn Roberts, who takes his responsibility of producing food and looking after the land seriously. Working with Bangor University and Hybu Cig Cymru-Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) a carbon audit was carried out on the farm highlighting where the business is doing well and where there is room for improvement when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. 

Using the result of the carbon audit the family hopes to be in a better position to highlight areas of improvements and lower their carbon footprint by increasing efficiency, lowering feed cost and increasing growth rate, less days to slaughter, reduced burden of disease, reducing the use of fertilizer by knowing the farm's needs and also using less fuel, are all things that are now being taken into consideration.

Pembrokeshire husband and wife team Jeff and Sarah Wheeler, who farm at Clyngwyn, Efailwen, Clynderwen, feel the current Control of Agricultural Pollution Regulations are going to make their business unviable and are asking the Welsh Government to take a hard look at what they’re asking the industry to do. The third generation to farm here, the couple milk150 cows on a spring calving system, looking after 195 acres which is down to grass land (of which 35 acres is rented), plus 50 acres of woodland. 

Under current NVZ regulations in other UK and EU Nations and previous regulations in Wales, farmers with more than 80% of their holding designated as grassland had the ability to apply for a derogation to increase the annual livestock manure Nitrate whole farm limit from 170kg N per ha to 250kg N per ha.

Despite the same option being included in Welsh Government’s draft Water Resources regulations published in 2020, it was omitted from the regulations before being laid in front of the Senedd in 2021 without any form of warning or explanation. 

Jeff says: “We’ve got enough storage for slurry but the stocking rates will hit us badly. They’ve brought in the nitrate limit, which wasn’t in the initial 'draft regulation, it came out of the blue. Any other country with such regulations has a derogation on the nitrate limit. If you're 80% down to grassland, which we are, you can keep more stock in other countries. Why is that not the case here now?”

A farming family from North Wales who are leading the way in looking after the environment and producing food, having recently undertaken extensive peatland restoration work on their farm in conjunction with Snowdonia National Park Authority and the Welsh Peatlands SMS project to develop the first Peatland Code project in Wales. 

The Roberts family, who have farmed at Pennant Farm, Llanymawddwy for several generations, keep beef and sheep, mainly hill ewes and some crossbreeds. A small suckler herd and crossbred ewes are also kept on the lowland and the family have diversified into holiday lets as well. There is a strong sense of responsibility when it comes to looking after the environment and creating biodiverse habitats, as well as producing food.

Taking their environmental ambitions forward, Farmers’ Union of Wales members Lisa and Sion Roberts, set in motion restoration works to re-profile and block the extensive complexes of hags and gullies across the Bwlch y Groes site, which were carried out by experienced peatland contractors at the end of the 2020 and start of 2021. 

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has highlighted the need for Members of Parliament to do all they can to fully scrutinise and have a say on an UK-Australia trade deal, after Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday agreed the broad terms of a deal.

“We have grave concerns that we could end up with a deal that’s catastrophic for animal welfare, the environment, our family farms and our food security - and that it will be set in stone,” said FUW President Glyn Roberts.

Mr Roberts said that in the past few days Boris Johnson had come under significant pressure from the world’s most powerful leaders because he had ignored all the warnings about the consequences of a deal he struck with the EU - the Northern Ireland Protocol.