The Farmers' Union of Wales insurance arm has grown rapidly within four years of being set up to become the third largest insurance broker in Wales, the union revealed today.

FUW Insurance Services are also celebrating being listed as one of the 100 largest brokers in the whole of the UK in the latest edition of the "Top 100 Independent Brokers" supplement published by Insurance Age magazine today.

"Being listed in this prestigious publication is a major achievement but to have done so within such a relatively short time after setting up as a broker is particularly pleasing," said FUW operations director Mark Roberts.

The Aberystwyth-based business has 13 branch offices across Wales and employs 30 field staff and 12 at head office specialising in insurance cover for all forms of farming and rural trades.

"We aim to be the number one rural insurance broker in Wales for personal insurance, commercial insurance as well as farm insurance and this listing has given us a greater impetus to provide our clients with excellent insurance solutions supported by a high level of personal service on a local basis through our network of area officers," Mr Roberts added.

FUW president Emyr Jones said: "The listing is good news for our members and ensures that the FUW is ideally placed to meet the needs of our existing members and to encourage the recruitment of new members wishing to gain access to our broker panel members and their services."

Contact your nearest FUW Insurance Services area officer by clicking on www.fuw.org.uk or calling 01970 820820.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today urged people living in the countryside to be vigilant for any suspicious activity after a farmer reported a case of sheep rustling on the Black Mountain near Brynamman, Carmarthenshire.

Hugh Davies, 67, and his 61-year-old wife Mary noticed 150 sheep were missing from their 1,000-head flock when they collected them from the mountain at the end of October.

They reported the theft to the police a fortnight ago and a reward of £5,000 has been offered for any information leading to the recovery of the sheep or conviction of the thieves.

"The problem is that the sheep are not replaceable if they have not been bred on the mountain. We are now keen to highlight this problem that is causing havoc among sheep farmers," said Mr Davies.

"To get the sheep off the mountain you need very good dogs and I suspect that someone who knows what they are doing is watching me closely.

"A few years ago, when we were enrolled in a scheme to cut scrapie, all our sheep were registered and we didn't lose any at all during those years. It makes you think.

"We usually lose about 30-40 sheep a year and some of our neighbours have also lost some stock this year but nothing to this extent has ever happened to us before," added Mr Davies.

Dyfed Powys Police confirmed they are investigating the theft of 150 sheep from the Black Mountain between Upper Brynamman and Gwynfe between the end of May and October 25.

The actual time of the theft is difficult to pinpoint due to the terrain and the amount of time between gatherings

"Prevention of rural crime such as this can be tackled but it needs the farmers, police and the wider rural communities to work together to combat it," said Sgt Matthew Howells, who represents the police on rural issues.

"The current prices sheep are fetching, although good news for the farming industry, does then lend itself as being a target for criminals intent on making money from their criminality.

"If we can work with the farming community in setting up Farm Watch schemes as recently showcased in North Ceredigion then we will hopefully be on the right track to reduce rural crime.

"I would be very interested in helping the community affected here to set up a Farm Watch scheme along with the local Neighbourhood Policing Team."

FUW president Emyr Jones said sheep rustling is an extremely disturbing development and a huge problem for Welsh farmers. A survey carried out by the union in 2004 revealed thousands of sheep were being stolen from farms across Wales over the course of a year.

The problem is much more widespread than thought, with the majority of stolen animals believed to end up in unlicensed abattoirs and slaughtered illegally.

"The FUW is urging everyone to be vigilant for any suspicious activity in the countryside and to use the latest camera phone technology in a bid to help the police catch the thieves," said Mr Jones.

The FUW's 2004 survey revealed a large number of thefts over the year. In Llangynidr, near Abergavenny, more than 1,000 sheep were stolen. The Brecon to Builth Wells area saw 487 sheep reported stolen, while seven cattle disappeared in the Sennybridge area.

In Monmouthshire, 570 sheep were reported stolen to the police from six farms and farmers in Llandinam, near Newtown, reported the theft of 150 ewes. Two farms at Ponterwyd, near Aberystwyth, suffered the theft of 115 sheep 23 went missing from a farm in Llandysul.

Some 270 sheep were reported stolen from a farm in Llanllwni, Carmarthenshire. In many cases the rustlers were taking 10-20 sheep out of a flock of more than 100 so that the thefts were not immediately noticed. The figures were based on the number of sheep reported stolen to the police - the true figure could be much higher.

[caption id="attachment_4544" align="aligncenter" width="394"] Emyr Jones - left- presents Gareth Vaughan with the miniature bronze statue watched by, from left, Glyn Powell, Barclays Bank agricultural manager Huw Tudor, Audrey Vaughan and FUW Montgomeryshire county chairman Alwyn Watkins.[/caption]

A miniature copy of the bronze statue of a shepherd and sheepdog unveiled in 2004 as part of the Royal Welsh Show centenary celebrations was presented to Farmers' Union of Wales immediate past president Gareth Vaughan during the union's national annual dinner at Welshpool.

Fittingly, the figure was handed over by Bala beef farmer Emyr Jones who succeeded Mr Vaughan last June following the Newtown sheep farmer's eight-year term in office.

Mr Jones said it had been a great privilege to serve as deputy to Mr Vaughan who had represented the union with great dignity and forcefulness.

Cast by Castle Fine Arts foundry in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powys, the life-size Royal Welsh Show statue of a shepherd flanked by a sheepdog and a Welsh Mountain ram is situated outside the Llanelwedd showground's International Pavilion.

More than 100 members and other friends and relatives attended the dinner in honour of Mr Vaughan and his wife Audrey.

Guest speaker, FUW life member and former deputy president Glyn Powell, said Mr Vaughan always portrayed the human face of Welsh farming.

"Whenever he was interviewed by the media on his farm he always turned up in his working clothes - not in some fancy Barbour jacket," said Mr Powell.

Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies also paid a glowing tribute to the dedicated service Mr Vaughan had given to Welsh farming over several years.

Mr Davies recalled first "locking horns" with Mr Vaughan during their early YFC days when they competed against each other in public speaking competitions. Mr Vaughan represented the Llangurig club and Mr Davies was a member of Berriew YFC.

[caption id="attachment_4541" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Brian Walters, second from right,receives the award from Welsh Dairy Show president Dai Davies. Also pictured are FUW Carmarthenshire county executive officer Meinir Bartlett and Welsh Dairy Show chairman Lynn Davies.[/caption]

Farmers' Union of Wales vice president Brian Walters has been presented with the FUW/United Counties Agriculture and Hunters Society's award for outstanding services to agriculture.

Together with his wife Ann and sons Aled and Seimon, Mr Walters runs a 500-acre holding at Clunmelyn, Ffynnonddrain, near Carmarthen. They have a dairy herd of 200 cows - some of which are pedigree Ayrshires - with 200 followers and 40 beef cattle.

They also run a self-catering farmhouse holiday unit and take pride in educating the occupants on the problems and joys of farming.

Mr Walters, a passionate and committed FUW supporter, has been a member since he started farming. He was Carmarthenshire county vice chairman from 1995 until 1997 when he became county chairman - a position he held for two years.

He is a past chairman of the FUW's Carmarthen branch milk committee (1995) and the union's central milk and dairy produce committee (1996-2000) and has been a vice president of the union since 2000.

Mr Walters was a district representative on Milk Marque's South Wales Board and then area representative on the Board of First Milk until 2002. He has represented the FUW on the Council of the Wales Federation of YFCs and the Organic Steering Group.

He has given evidence on TB in cattle to the House of Commons agriculture committee and, more recently, to the National Assembly's environment, planning and countryside committee.

Mr Walters has been fully involved in his local community for many years. He is a deacon of his local chapel - Elim, Ffynnonddrain - past chairman of St Peter's YFC, past Carmarthenshire YFC county chairman and past chairman of Wales YFC’s finance and organisation committee.

He has been fortunate to travel to Canada and Spain on behalf of the YFC and was asked to act as leader of a YFC trip to Sweden. He is currently chairman of the South Wales Ayrshire Club.

Over the last 18 years 15 students from Gelli Aur Agricultural College have had work experience on his farm.

He has acted in a local drama group for 20 years, compères local concerts and is an after-dinner speaker. During the past year, he has given over 50 TV and radio interviews in Welsh and English on various topics for Radio Cymru, Radio Wales and Radio 5 Live as well as participating in Farming Today on Radio 4 and Jeremy Vine’s programme on Radio 2.

He was also interviewed by a correspondent from the Wall Street Journal who was shown around his farm and introduced to local farmers.

[caption id="attachment_4538" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Brian Richards[/caption]

Failure of the Welsh bovine TB review panel to report to Minister John Griffiths in a timely manner could add to the number of cattle slaughtered and the suffering of farming families, according to the Farmers' Union of Wales dairy committee.

Newly-appointed committee vice chairman Brian Richards, who has lost 13 cattle over the past two years due to the disease, said today: "Bovine TB continues to ravage our communities, and has already led to the slaughter of around 6,000 cattle in Wales in 2011.

"The impact in terms of animal welfare and the emotional and financial effect it has on farming families is acute."

Mr Richards, of Pontarddulais, Carmarthenshire, said that, while committee members were extremely critical of the Welsh Government's decision to repeat work which had been already done, they fully recognised the magnitude of the task given to the new TB panel.

"However, committee delegates urged the panel members to do everything within their power to ensure they report back to the Minister as soon as is possible.

"Every day that goes past means more suffering for animals and more psychological devastation for families. We cannot afford to suffer any more avoidable delays."

[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."