[caption id="attachment_4535" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Dei Davies.[/caption]

The Welsh Government was called on by the Farmers' Union of Wales' milk and dairy produce committee today to carry out urgent impact assessments to ensure dairy producing areas are not devastated by imminent changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Following a meeting of the committee in Aberystwyth, newly-elected committee chairman Dei Davies said: "The committee was unanimous in its view that the Welsh dairy industry could be severely hit unless the Welsh Government acts now to undertake impact assessments looking at a variety of flat-rate single payment models and the effects they would have on dairy production and dairy farm incomes in regions throughout Wales."

Mr Davies, a Flintshire dairy farmer, said failure to prepare properly for changes to the CAP after 2013 could mean financial collapse in many of Wales'' most productive dairying areas.

"The draft CAP proposals published on October 12 would have a severe impact on dairy farms if implemented in their current form, and it is essential that Welsh Government establishes an evidence base which can be used to show Europe why the draft regulations need to be changed.

"There is also a desperate need to look at the impact of different flat-rate models on entire constituencies within Wales where dairy farming is prevalent and makes a key contribution to local employment."

Under the current CAP proposals, every farm business within a region would ultimately receive the same payment for every hectare of land they farm. However, it is likely that Wales will be able to define different regions of Wales with different payment rates.

"Work done by the FUW has shown that average total payments to upland and lowland farm businesses are currently very similar, but lowland farms are, on average, almost half the size of upland farms.

"This means that failure by the Welsh Government to investigate and implement an appropriate definition of 'region' would result in entire constituencies in Wales losing tens of millions, with catastrophic consequences to communities and in terms of food production and local employment."

Under the current proposals, the Welsh Government has 21 months before it notifies Europe of its intentions.

"The Welsh Government must ensure that it has left no stone unturned in the search for a model which is appropriate for Welsh agriculture as a whole, otherwise we will be backed into a corner and forced to make catastrophic decisions because essential ground work has not been done," said Mr Davies.

"It is also critical that our Deputy Minister is able negotiate with his counterparts across the UK and with the European Commission while having all the facts and figures at his disposal. He should not be going into those meetings empty-handed."

Anglesey farmer Dafydd Roberts has been elected as the new chairman of the Farmers' Union of Wales's influential livestock, wool and marts committee.

Mr Roberts, a past county chairman and county president of the union's Anglesey branch, farms around 300 acres at Tryfil Uchaf, Llandrygan, Llanerchymedd.

Together with his wife Cadi, a retired teacher, he runs a flock of 500 Suffolk cross and half-bred sheep and 100 Friesian beef cattle.

Mr Roberts, who was born on the farm in 1945 and has lived there ever since, studied agriculture at the former Coleg Pencraig at Llangefni. He has four children and nine grandchildren.

He said: "It is a great honour for me to be elected as chairman of this important committee and I look forward to continuing the good work the previous chairman, Aeron Prysor Jones, has done for the union and its members."

The Farmers’ Union of Wales is kick-starting the fundraising events planned for its president’s chosen charity - Cancer Research Wales - with a memory walk on a Ceredigion farm on Saturday November 5.

FUW members and members of the public are invited to take part in the three-mile walk at Morfa Farm, Llanrhystud, starting at 1.30pm.

“This is our first fundraising event and I am looking forward to welcoming family and friends of the union and others wanting to raise money for the charity,” said FUW president Emyr Jones.

“Cancer Research Wales relies on volunteers and fundraisers to help pay for vital research projects and all the money raised will help in the fight against cancer, here in Wales. This is why we are asking participants to raise a minimum of £5 for the charity on this occasion.

“At the end of the walk we will be lighting a candle in memory of those who have lost the fight against cancer,” added Mr Jones.

The charity is currently funding a ground-breaking project looking at ways to stop breast and prostate tumours - the two most common cancers affecting men and women in Wales - spreading to other parts of the body.

Based at Velindre Hospital in Cardiff, the charity supports projects across Wales.

For further information contact Anne Birkett on 01970 820820 or by e-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Farmers' Union of Wales has launched a ready reckoner application on its website - www.fuw.org.uk - which allows Welsh farmers to calculate what their future direct payments could look like under two different flat-rate payment models.

FUW director of agricultural policy Nick Fenwick said today: "There is a huge amount of uncertainty regarding what payments will actually look like in Wales in the future but we do know that from 2014 we will be moving towards a flat rate payment system where every farmer in a region is likely to get the same payment per hectare."

Dr Fenwick said one of the critical questions would be how regions within Wales, and the payments per hectare in those regions, were defined.

"We currently have no way of knowing what model and payment rates we will end up with in Wales but this application at least gives an indication of what would happen in two possible scenarios."

The application allows farmers to input how much land they have and calculate what their payments could be after a transition period under two possible flat-rate payment models.

The first model assumes every farm in Wales would receive the same payment per hectare while the second is based upon differing payment rates for Severely Disadvantaged, Disadvantaged, non-LFA and common land.

The rates for the four different land categories are based upon Welsh averages.

Dr Fenwick warned that there was likely to be significant disruption and redistribution of funds irrespective of what final model was chosen.

"We know from the experience in England that an element of redistribution of funds is inevitable and that there will be big winners and losers.

"Our priority since we conducted our initial detailed analysis in 2009 has been to ensure we have as many facts as figures at our disposal so Wales can choose a model which minimises disruption for the industry.

"While this tool cannot predict actual future payments on farms, it can certainly give farmers an insight into what payments could look like after a transition to two different payment models."