[caption id="attachment_4967" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Robert and Mark Fear[/caption]

Welsh dairy farmers were warned today to check that they are insured for loss of milk supplies due to adverse weather this winter.

"Serious weather conditions are likely to affect the collection of milk produce over the coming months," said the Farmers' Union of Wales business development director Emyr James.

"During last year's harsh winter many farmers suffered losses as milk collection services were disrupted due to hazardous road conditions. Some local authorities may be forced to remove roads from their gritting lists while Ceredigion County Council has already listed some roads that will not receive first-grit treatment.

"Following last winter's experience and the likely impact of local government cutbacks, it is certainly worthwhile assessing the risk of losing milk revenue owing to difficult weather conditions," said Mr James.

Before last winter the previous spell of bad weather to have an impact upon milk collections was in the early 1980s. As a consequence, many farmers have allowed uncollected milk cover to lapse.

"Most farmers have not taken out milk insurance yet, as most of them believe bad weather will not affect them enough to make it worthwhile," said Mr James.

Ceredigion Council decided that over ten roads will be removed from the first-grit route this coming winter such as the B4234 Felinfach to Hendrelas, B4334 Penrhiwpal to Brynhoffnant, C1010 Rhydtir to Gogerddan crossroads and the B4342 to Talsarn.

"Insurance cover is available to cover circumstances outside personal control in which milk is lost, wasted, or spoiled, resulting from non-collection from the purchaser," added Mr James.

"The cover, however, is not only specifically for weather conditions but covers non-collection for any reason beyond human control.

"Looking at the road conditions from last year, it is worthwhile considering insuring against the possibility of milk not being collected this winter."

Organic dairy and beef farmers Robert Fear, 66, his wife Maureen, 64, and their son Mark, 29, of Tynffynnon farm, Cilcennin, Lampeter, who farm around 60 dairy cows, have taken out milk insurance this year to ensure they are covered for the worst case scenario following last winter's problems.

"We had our insurance reviewed last week by our area officer. Some farmers say it is too costly and you just have to take the chance but we were not prepared to take that chance again," said Mr Fear.

Mrs Fear said: "We have lived here for over 13 years and have never experienced such bad weather as we had last winter.

"All of a sudden we heard the milk tanker was not coming because of the state of the roads. As farmers on the same collection route, we were ringing around each other asking if their milk had been collected - and of course it had not.

"You just did not know if it was going to be picked up or not. Then if you had it picked up you did not know when the next collection would be. It was an anxious time while the roads were in this treacherous situation."

Mr Fear added: "We had just seen the New Year in and it was a job to get hold of anyone to speak to. The transport company is based in Whitland and some of their drivers could not get into work because of the bad weather.

"Now that we have taken the insurance out it is complete peace of mind. We don't have to worry now if the milk does not get collected. It is still going to be hard, when you have made the effort to milk the cows you don't want to pull the plug on it."

Mrs Fear added: "We are only a small family farm. If the money does not come in because of wasted milk collections, bearing in mind the low milk prices as well, we are in trouble if we lose two or three collections in a month."

[caption id="attachment_4964" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Heidi Williams outside the FUW marquee where the Land Army exhibition was staged at last year's Anglesey county show[/caption]

The Farmers' Union of Wales has issued an SOS to all former Land Army girls to get in touch so that they can share their memories at a special afternoon tea reunion.

Last year the union's Anglesey county branch held a Land Army exhibition at the island's county show. During the Second World War many girls stayed in hostels on the island at Menai Bridge, Valley and Llanerchymedd.

Following the success of the exhibition, FUW county executive officer Heidi Williams is organising the afternoon tea to be held on Thursday November 25 at the Swallow Falls Hotel, Betws y Coed.

"The event is being held to thank the ladies for their kind contribution during the war and for tending to the land whilst the men were in action," said Mrs Williams.

"As in World War One, young women were called on to work on the land and the Women's Land Army (WLA) was re-formed in July 1939. Their work was vital as so many men were sent to war.

"The work was hard and the young women usually worked in isolated communities. Many lived in hostels or old farm workers' cottages, often without running water, electricity or gas."

Over 30 entries including stories and recollections from Land Army girls were received for last year's exhibition from as far as the Isle of Wight and Yorkshire.

The winner was Sybil Hammond of Sandown on the Isle of Wight who won a milking stool engraved with the FUW logo.

Mrs Williams said: "The tea room will be transformed into a war time theme and we would like to ask the ladies to bring a keepsake or something special from their Land Army days so that they can share their stories and recollections."

The union's other North Wales county executive officers have agreed to help organise and transport women to the event from their areas.

Any former Land Army members wishing to attend the tea should, at their earliest convenience, contact Mrs Williams at the FUW's Anglesey office on 01248 750250 or e-mail her at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sybil Hammond's recollections of her time at the Menai Bridge Land Army hostel can be found on the web at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/62/a8702462.shtml

[caption id="attachment_4961" align="aligncenter" width="300"] James, Linda and Keith Hughes on their dairy farm[/caption]

A West Wales dairy farming couple has recalled how they helped achieve a boost in their financial prospects by reluctantly taking controversial advice from their son.

Keith and Linda Hughes of Caeau Newydd, Dryslwyn, near Carmarthen, agreed to convert their 400-acre mixed stock farm of dairy, beef and sheep to the "New Zealand System" of farming based on pasture and grazing when their son James returned from a gap year working on a dairy farm in New Zealand.

After studying agriculture at the former Welsh Agricultural College in Aberystwyth James, now 34, was ready to start working on the family farm.

"With him coming home and an extra man already working on the farm we knew that we had to step up a gear," Keith said. "I didn’t want to do all the hard work myself and hand everything over to him on a plate.

"I wanted him to have an input into what direction we would go so we waited until he returned from New Zealand. Little did I know what he had in mind and it took him a few months to persuade us of the new Kiwi system of milk production that we had never heard of before."

The family then took the new system on board wholeheartedly. Keith became so excited about it that he could not stop telling friends and neighbours about this new way of making money.

"I had a negative reaction from everybody. I realised then that if I wanted to keep any friends I'd better shut up about it," he told Farmers' Union of Wales officials when they visited the farm.

However, together with Linda and James they were determined to proceed with the new venture which meant the beef and sheep enterprises had to be sacrificed to accommodate a large dairy herd which, of course, meant a new larger parlour.

The new venture did not get of to an easy start. "The next problem we faced was the milking parlour. James had been in New Zealand for a year and he had very different ideas about what sort of parlour he would need.

"A cheap and cheerful swing over parlour was required. Unfortunately, no manufacturer in this country would let us have one but eventually James made some contacts at a dairy show with a man who imported milking parlours from New Zealand."

The family then proceeded to build the first swing over parlour in Wales in 1999. "In the first year we milked 128 cows on a herd group constantly.

"In the beginning we ran a fine herd, because it was possible to access cows that were cheap to purchase and would calve in the spring."

Today the family runs their own home breed. "We cross Jersey bulls with large Holstein cows for the larger cows and the New Zealand Friesian for the smaller cows. The herd grew rapidly - so much so that our heifers are now contract reared from three months," said Keith.

"Now that we have lowered the herd stocking level it has given us the opportunity to improve pasture by reseeding. Two years ago we implemented a plan to reseed 70 acres every year.

"We have improved grass production so that we can upgrade to at least 360 cows and helped to mitigate the loss of the single farm payment."

The majority of the farm shares were handed over to James following Keith’s 60th birthday. Keith is confident James will make a success of the business.

"I passionately believe that the future of farming should be in the hands of vibrant young farmers," he added.

Looking back on a successful past year, Keith and Linda are optimistic about the future and believe the Kiwi way of dairy milk farming was definitely the right choice for them.

"Our carried forward profit per share (cfps) for 2009 - which was not a pretty good year due to poor quality silage - and after all our costs including our own salaries, which are realistic, and quite a chunk for depreciation, we were left at the end of all that, excluding the single farm payment, with a net profit margin of 5.31 pence per litre."

Keith and Linda set up the farm 35 years ago when they rented 150 acres. Five years later they were offered first refusal on a further 250 acres - an opportunity they could not refuse.

"We then grew to 400 acres, 350 of which grow grass and the rest holds trees, rivers and cow tracks," Keith added.

At the end of the visit, FUW president Gareth Vaughan said:""It is a wonderful system. I have read a lot about it but I have never seen this system in action before.

"I compliment you on your attitude towards life and the young people in the family. That is an attitude that lots of us in the industry could learn from."

The Farmers' Union of Wales has joined farming organisations from across the UK in highlighting to European Commission officials the need for sheep tagging rules to reflect the shortcomings of EID technology.

During a visit by officials from the EC departments responsible for animal health and agriculture to Penrith Market in Cumbria, and a subsequent meeting, FUW director of agricultural policy Nick Fenwick highlighted the industry's concerns regarding the impact of the regulation.

Speaking after the meeting, Dr Fenwick said: "While the FUW maintains its wholehearted objection to compulsory sheep EID, the reality is that the EU is in no hurry to change the general regime.

"One immediate focus is, therefore, to persuade the commission to make allowances which ensure that failures in the technology do not result in farmers being penalised for cross compliance breaches."

During the visit the commission was presented with a host of data confirming that error rates were significant and that the proportion of batches read at markets containing errors could be as high as 30%.

"The commission accepted that 100% reliability of the technology is not realistic and made some encouraging noises regarding the general principle that there should be no penalty against a farmer for circumstances which are not reasonably within their control. They also stated that penalties need to be proportionate."

During the meeting, the commission referred to existing EC guidelines regarding other issues where normal error rates should not result in farmers being penalised, marking a welcome acceptance that principles which apply in other areas should extend to the sheep EID regime.

The problem associated with individually recording and reporting the movements of sheep born before 2010 after 2011 was also highlighted during the meeting.

"Having to record and report individual movements of pre-2010 animals after 2011 will be a major problem for the industry, and the common sense solution would be to allow such sheep to be reported and recorded in batches until they are out of the system," Dr Fenwick added.

The commission also agreed to consider the issue of older sheep, as well as a number of other concerns raised at the meeting.

Fears were expressed today that a major rural crime wave could break out across Wales as a result of the £7bn annual welfare payment cuts announced in the Coalition Government's Spending Review.

Farmers' Union of Wales Gwent area officer Neil Smith, who has witnessed a big increase in farm equipment thefts over the past two months, said: "With such a reduction in social and welfare payments, and considering the current economic climate, we could see a further increase in such thefts."

Abergavenny-based Mr Smith, who visits farms as part of his job, said the situation was particularly bad in Gwent. He is personally aware of two trailers, mini diggers and a couple of quad bikes being stolen over the past few weeks.

Last month the FUW warned farmers to be on the alert for three men from the Cardiff area with a pellet gun who claimed to be rabbiting when the white transit van they were travelling in was spotted parked on two separate farms in the Neath area.

Police inspected the inside of the van - CV05 YPK - at Llwynllanc Farm, Crynant, and nothing was found but it was seen again five days later parked on a neighbouring farm.

"We are anxious to highlight this incident because there have been a lot of farm quad bikes stolen in that area recently," said FUW Glamorgan county executive officer Adrian Evans.

"The police are warning farmers that the rabbiting claim could be just another scam by criminals to give them a degree of legitimacy for being on farm land and having a good look around the buildings."

Police revealed that a notable arrest was made in Aberdulais recently when two Merthyr men were apprehended for going equipped to steal. They were also using a transit van which contained empty diesel drums and siphoning equipment.

They are also investigating after a stolen tractor was left crashed into a tree at Gellyfowy Fawr, Ynysmeudwy, Pontardawe, and a steel gate was stolen from Brynchwyth, Tonna.

The union's Gwent county executive officer Glyn Davies said: "The stealing of diesel is very common and farmers need to take extra safety measures.

"It was only a few weeks ago that three attempted tractor thefts were made in the Gwent area. The winter months are approaching and early dark evenings make farms a target."

Beryl Yeomans, of White Hill Farm, Wonastow, Monmouth, had her tractor stolen recently and it was only due to the watchful eye of a neighbour travelling to work early one morning that the culprits could be stopped.

"It was the end of September and the police rang us at 5am in the morning to ask if we were missing a tractor. They said they found the tractor on the road with the engine running and wheels turning with just the hand brake on.

"A neighbour had happened to go to work early that day and saw the tractor being driven along the road quite slowly. He must have scared them of and they jumped in a car and drove of.

"He informed the police of the location of the tractor and the car's registration immediately. We are very lucky that the tractor was found with only minor damage.

"It was an old tractor but it also had a silage bale handler on the loader. We could never have replaced all of this just from the insurance money. We will now look into further security measures," Mrs Yeomans added.

[caption id="attachment_4951" align="aligncenter" width="300"] FUW president Gareth Vaughan - left - with HSBC head of agriculture Allan Wilkinson on a visit yesterday - October 18 - to Caeau Newydd dairy farm, at Dryslwyn near Carmarthen.[/caption]

There is a sense of opportunity for dairy farmers worldwide from an expanding market but matters are a great deal more challenging in the UK, HSBC bank's head of agriculture Allan Wilkinson said last night (Monday, October 18).

Speaking at a Farmers' Union of Wales reception on the eve of the Welsh Dairy Show in Carmarthen, Mr Wilkinson said the UK dairy industry had witnessed massive change since the demise of the Milk Marketing Boards in 1994.

"There has been a period of catch up with the rest of Europe. With that change has come an ever greater reliance on a market-place driven milk price which, by its very nature, will vary depending on the ultimate end use and the strength and efficiency of the chain involved to get it to the consumer.

"It has even manifested itself into the current discounting of fresh liquid milk on the supermarket shelf, traditionally seen as the place for highest milk prices for the UK producer."

Added pressures for UK dairy farmers are: bovine TB which has been extremely challenging to all those affected; a more testing than usual growing season stretching some silage stocks; and higher winter feed costs for the majority of producers reliant on bought-in concentrates.

"Add these to a seemingly increasing administrative burden and the prospect of the reform of the CAP for 2013 onwards, and the pressures are there for all to see," said Mr Wilkinson.

"Producer numbers have fallen considerably in the last decade, though UK milk output has remained just below historic levels. Those remaining have expanded 'to fill the gap'.

"There is indeed a majority of producers who are no better than breaking even at present. That can be no surprise to anyone. Between the best and the worst, however, the range seems greater than ever, with the very best achieving total costs of production well below 20p/litre.

"Milk producers who have the combination of strong and efficient levels of technical output, and low costs of production, will have the ability to stand fluctuating milk prices as the world market place moves. They will remain successful, and they will continue to invest in the future, making the most of their current position.

"Milk production in this part of the world has many advantages that are the envy of the world. Please seize them, be they on farm, based on grass production, or from the provenance that the market place can and should offer you.

"Farmgate milk price has always been and is still very important to the producer. Obviously the higher it is, the greater the chance of profit - providing costs remain in check as well.

"All parts of the dairy industry must recognise the need for a sensible return for the future continued success of the whole. Knowing in greater detail your customer or supplier and working more closely with them - who ever they are - will become more important, irrespective of position within that chain.

"Retailers, processors or farmers are equally interdependent upon the next part of that chain. That is true now, and from what I see of dairying elsewhere, individual producers and producer groups have an increasing positive, even collaborative role to play going forward.

"So do I see a positive outlook for UK dairying? Yes I do, and I say that from the point of view of the UK market place, the ever demanding but receptive UK consumer and the wider global position.

"We have a strong home market, but it is not ours by right. It will demand continued attention, or it will become someone else's market. It may require fresh thinking to make the most of the opportunity ahead.

"The future will be more challenging than hitherto, it will contain continued price volatility and the market will remain complex. We can only plan forward for a strong UK dairy farming industry with the global market place and food chain well understood.

"The current environment places pressure on the individual producer, but it also suggests to me a substantial pressure in the processor sector as they seek to re-invest and plan for their long term."

Earlier, FUW president Gareth Vaughan stressed that the steep decline in the number of Welsh dairy farmers will continue so long as supermarkets continue to take a bigger share of the profits from milk sales.

"New figures released by DairyCo earlier this month revealed dairy farmers in Wales and England received an average 23.8p per litre for their milk during 2009/2010 compared to 25.8p the previous year. But the retailers' share of the price went up from 18.8p to 22.4p.

"These figures underline our fears for the traditional Welsh dairy farm which has declined sharply in numbers from 2,727 in 2006 to 2,094 last year.

"We have to ask whether the prices paid to Welsh dairy farmers are sufficient to give them a sustainable return to enable them to invest in their business and continue to supply milk in an efficient and profitable manner.

"The Welsh dairy farm has been the backbone of community life in much of rural Wales for years but these figures don't provide any comfort for the future.

"I fear that the decline in dairy farm numbers will continue until there is a change of heart by the retailers and they start paying producers the kind of prices they badly need to allow them to fully meet their costs and invest for the future."