Pembrokeshire farming stalwart, Brian Thomas, has been re-elected as the Farmers’ Union of Wales Deputy President, during a meeting of the Union’s Grand Council in Aberystwyth (Monday, June 19).
Brian Thomas, has been farming at Llwyncelyn Lan farm, Llanfyrnach since 1988. The family farm consists of 280 acres, 30 acres of which is woodland, and is home to a herd of 100 beef shorthorn cattle and a flock of 300 ewes, with cereals also being grow.
He is a past County Chairman of the FUW in Pembrokeshire, and has previously sat on the FUW’s central tenant’s committee. Brian was elected South Wales member of the central finance and organisation committee in 2011 and elected Vice President of the FUW in 2013.
Speaking after his appointment, Brian Thomas said: “I would like to thank those who have voted for me to continue in my role as Deputy President of the Union. It has been a pleasure to work alongside Glyn Roberts for the past 2 years and I look forward to continuing my work with him and the new FUW board of Directors.”
During the 1996 BSE outbreak, Mr Thomas lead the campaign in South West Wales opposing the importation of inferior beef into Wales. In 1997 he led a group of 10 farmers to Tesco’s stand at the Royal Welsh Show to address them about the unfair way in which they were treating the industry.
Bovine TB is a subject which Brian is passionate about. When his herd went down with the disease in the late 1990’s he commented in interviews that the disease would be more of a problem than BSE would ever be if it was not tackled.
Unfortunately, for many he has been proved right and currently he sits on the local working group for the Assembly’s Bovine TB Intensive Action Area in North Pembrokeshire, representing farmers in the area.