The uniqueness of Welsh agriculture and the importance of involving the devolved administrations in planning the future of agriculture have today been reiterated by the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW), following a speech made by DEFRA’s Andrea Leadsom.

Whilst the FUW welcomed some of the points made by the Environment Secretary, such as the acknowledgement that the industry will need financial support after having made an exit from the European Union and tariff-free access to the European markets, it was disappointing to note the lack of recognition for devolved administrations and the crucial role they need to play in devising a UK wide framework for agriculture.

The Union has previously welcomed the recognition of the role devolved administrations should play in planning for our departure from the European Union, when Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her 12 point Brexit plan, and her recognition that Wales is different to the rest of the UK.

FUW Managing Director Alan Davies said: “Andrea Leadsom stated that she will be meeting with each of the Ministers from the devolved administrations in Edinburgh on Thursday, February 23, but we need those in Westminster to fully understand that the complex political principles at stake here, can only be resolved through cooperation and collaboration between all 4 nations of the United Kingdom. And more importantly, until those principles are resolved we cannot be clear as to who will have primacy of decision making in the long term.

“The Prime Minister has previously said that there will be no landgrab of powers from devolved nations and that means that the Welsh Government will be responsible for all agriculture policy, a position we welcome. But we also recognise the need to create and work within a UK Framework that enables and constrains the UK administrations in a way that creates a healthy yet stable home market in the UK.”

The FUW has since the referendum result last year stressed that the UK post-Brexit needs to put a UK agricultural framework in place which prevents unfair competition between devolved regions and secures and protects adequate long term funding for agriculture, while also respecting devolved powers over agriculture.

“We ask what sort of industry we want to be and what sort of country we want to be and the answer is really quite obvious - agriculture in the UK and in Wales has to be profitable and sustainable and the important role family farms play in making the wheels of the rural economy go round have to be recognised and we must recognise that Wales is not the same as England in terms of need, product and social importance of agriculture.

“The FUW is in agreement that we can have a prosperous future for the sector once we leave the EU and that there are plenty of opportunities to be explored but a lot of it depends on the willingness of our politicians in Westminster to recognise how different farming across the devolved nations is and that they have very different requirements,” added Alan Davies.

[caption id="attachment_7720" align="alignleft" width="185"] Steve Smith[/caption]

Well known in farming circles throughout Wales and the UK, Steve Smith, is a former Welsh Sheep Farmer of the Year and has won many accolades for his prize winning Penparc Texel flock.

He achieved an ambition in 2010 by winning the supreme pairs at the Welsh Winter Fair and is well versed in the challenges and opportunities being a first generation farmer can bring, but is realistic about the priorities that have to be made to achieve your dream.

Steve has built up his farming enterprise to approx 1200 acres, and the business is spread over two holdings in Montgomeryshire and Meirionnydd, where a fully stratified sheep system is in operation.

He recognising the great maternal instincts and longevity of the Welsh hill flock and its influence in building a sound genetic maternal base on which the finished lamb enterprise is based upon. The pedigree Pen Parc Longhorn Herd also runs alongside, and he focuses on marketing this to the high quality market.

The holdings are part of the the Welsh Government Glastir Suite of Agri Environment schemes and the aim of the family has always been to match sustainable land management with top quality breeding stock and these two founding principles have been behind the success of the business.

Steve has always had a great appreciation for nature and the need to have sustainability at its core. He said: “I have always respected nature and its environment before it became fashionable.”

In the late 90's the family further diversified into holiday cottages and more recently renewable energy.

For the last 9 years Steve has been the Montgomeryshire British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) representative and is now looking to become the Welsh Northern Region elected member, to represent the interests of Welsh farmers and further promote the work of Welsh farmers and the BWMB.

He has a global outlook and an understanding of how the markets work and what is needed to make a success of the industry, which is now more important than ever given the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.

“Every asset on the farm and that includes wool will need to meet consumer demands as efficiently as possible. It is easy to forget why co-operatives were originally set up. They were set up at times of adversity to make the farming voice stronger, our forefathers were some of the greatest entrepreneurs of their time. The last few decades have seen farmers become more isolated through the need for efficiencies and increased mechanisation,” he said.

Going forward with global forces and free trading the time may come again when farmers have to strengthen their voice to be heard. The British Wool Board is effectively the largest producer co-operative in Britain, with over 40,000 registered sheep farmers and always has operated on a global market making it very well placed to go forward.

Steve is well aware that there are further efficiencies to be made, saying:  “I want to get more of the price paid for wool back to the producers because that has to be ultimate aim.

“The BWMB has recently appointed Joe Farrell to take over has the new CEO. Mr farrell is a former barrister with excellent management skills and  he recognises the need to support training programmes and provide value for money for our farmers. To some extent this could be done by reducing administration and marketing and promotion costs. However, this can only be achieved if every wool producer supports the BWMB. If we lose this, fragmentation in our industry does not serve any master well.”

“It is very important that everyone who produces wool understands how the process works and sees the amount of investment that goes into scouring plants in this country. Keeping the processing capacity in the UK is vital to ensuring there is a reasonably competitive base in our markets.

“The same could be said for the red meat and the dairy industries ‘added value’ must be core to our activities going forward. There are exciting times ahead and yes, I know the price of wool has slightly dipped at present but it’s a green product that fits into the expectations of customers in the present day,” said Steve.

The world is changing and farmers have an uncertain future in terms of the political arena, Steve recognises, saying: “Never before have so many demands been made upon our farmers. Retaining a critical mass of sheep numbers will be one of the next challenges as farm support evolves, but that does not mean we cannot plan for our future, new research and development.

“A pull on natural resources and reductions required in the use of fossil fuels means that consumers will have to look to longer term choices when they purchase. Wool is a prime example of that, with exciting new designers on board I am confident that the term ‘Green Growth’ will attract buyers for Welsh wool the UK can have a bright future.”

Speaking about why Steve Smith is worth supporting in his ambition to be elected as the Northern Region Member, FUW Montgomeryshire County Executive Officer Emyr Wyn Davies said: “Steve has all the enthusiasm and over all knows how the BWMB works, having been the Montgomeryshire representative for over 9 years. I would encourage anyone who has received a voting paper to support Steve in his endeavour to help further the work of the BWMB.”

[caption id="attachment_7713" align="alignleft" width="300"] Since 1997 the annual percentage of Welsh herds which have their official TB free status withdrawn has risen ten-fold.[/caption]

In case you missed it, FUW Head of Policy Dr Nick Fenwick recently wrote an article for the IWA on bovine TB:

In the late 1960s the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food was trying to solve a mystery: cattle testing and movement controls had successfully reduced cattle TB levels to a fraction of one percent, and led to the disease being eradicated from most of the UK; yet these controls seemed to be having no impact on disease levels in parts of the South West of England, where incidences were at least five times higher than the national rate.

Confirmation of what many had suspected came in 1971, when a dead badger was found to be severely infected with TB. The area where the badger had been found shared two characteristics; it had high levels of TB, and what were, by those days’ standards, high badger numbers.

The discovery led to a succession of national policies aimed at removing badgers in such areas – policies supported by eminent conservationists such as Peter Hardy MP, sponsor of the 1973 Badger Act – but from the mid-1980s these became less intensive, and in 1997 a moratorium was placed on culling which persists in Wales to this day.

Since 1971, badger protection legislation has led to an estimated ten-fold increase in badger numbers – to the extent that badger population densities across vast areas of Wales and the UK are now at the same level as those previously only seen in the pockets of South West of England where TB had persisted.

The impact of this increase on other wild animals is well documented, most notably in terms of the devastating impact on hedgehog numbers – badgers are, after all, our largest terrestrial carnivore.

And, not surprisingly, TB levels have returned to epidemic proportions across much of Wales, while tried and tested cattle controls which work in countries devoid of wildlife reservoirs have failed to control the disease.

Since 1997 the annual percentage of Welsh herds which have their official TB free status withdrawn has risen ten-fold, while the number of Welsh cattle culled annually to control the disease has gone from 613 in 1997 to 9,934 in the 12 months to October 2016. During the same period, the number of Welsh badgers culled due to TB was zero, despite the latest Welsh Government figures showing TB levels in badgers to be fourteen times higher than in cattle.

Between 2007 and 2011, the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition, with cross party support, decided to grasp the nettle by implementing a badger cull in north Pembrokeshire, but their plans were thwarted; first by the courts, which basically ruled the original legislation underpinning the cull had been improperly drafted, and then by the 2011-2016 Labour administration, which decided to vaccinate rather than cull badgers in the area – despite official advice that vaccination would be so ineffective that it would cost a net £3.5 million, while a cull would have led to reductions in herd incidences and cattle slaughtered which would more than cover costs.

This position was backed up by the Bovine Tuberculosis subgroup of the EU Task Force for Monitoring Animal Disease Eradication, who in 2012 criticised Wales’ change of direction, saying “There is no scientific evidence to demonstrate that badger vaccination will reduce the incidence of TB in cattle. However there is considerable evidence to support the removal of badgers in order to improve the TB status of both badgers and cattle.”

[caption id="attachment_7663" align="alignright" width="300"] The number of Welsh cattle culled annually to control the disease has gone from 613 in 1997 to 9,934 in the 12 months to October 2016.[/caption]

So it comes as little surprise that the latest official report on the badger vaccination programme in north Pembrokeshire, which cost £3.7 million, concludes that “Consistent trends in indicators of bTB incidence have not yet been seen…”

For Welsh farmers suffering the daily emotional and financial consequences of having their businesses locked down for months by movement restrictions, and seeing cattle taken or culled on farm, year-in, year-out, the latest Welsh Government proposal to escalate what are already the most restrictive cattle TB rules in the world have led to palpable anger - but not because of the rules per se.

In fact, while few agree with all of the proposals – which include splitting Wales into five regions, each with strict additional cattle controls – many understand the merits of what the Welsh Government is trying to achieve, but with one caveat: The failure to include solid proposals to proactively deal with the disease reservoir in badgers makes no sense.

Similar concerns were expressed during a recent Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee hearing, when Dr Paul Livingstone, who headed up New Zealand’s successful TB eradication programme, described badgers as ‘the elephant in the room’, claiming nothing was being done in Wales about a key disease reservoir.

The Welsh Government might argue that such claims are unfair – they have, after all, implemented an (albeit, to date unsuccessful) badger vaccination programme, and only recently Chief Veterinary Officer Christianne Glossop stated infected groups of badgers might be trapped and humanely killed where it can be objectively proven badgers are infected.

It is certainly true that both the Welsh Government and the farming industry acknowledge that badgers are a source of infection, and that something needs to be done about the matter; the battle is over what to do about it and when.

Farmers fear that personal views and political cowardice on the part of politicians will continue to slow down TB eradication, as every excuse is used to avoid action, while talk of culling badgers only when ‘it can be objectively proved’ is read as a delaying tactic, aimed at putting off moves to tackle probable causes of infection indefinitely.

Over the coming weeks Cabinet Secretary Lesley Griffiths will consider whether to implement the Welsh Government’s proposals.

While Welsh Government statements that badgers may be culled when sufficient proof has been gathered hints at light at the end of the tunnel, failure to be robust and ensure such measures can be rolled out rapidly and on a large enough scale will delay eradication by decades, while prolonging the expense and torment for farming families.

The situation would be bad enough under normal circumstances, but with Brexit looming, competitors in other countries have one eye on our TB status, and how it might be used to their benefit – and our detriment – in trade negotiations. The clock is ticking.

[caption id="attachment_7707" align="alignleft" width="200"] FUW Deputy President Brian Thomas[/caption]

The announcement that supermarket Morrisons is starting a search for the best local food producers who can help to feed the nation, following the release of new report which calls for the UK to be more self-sufficient in food production and new consumer research showing a growing appetite from British shoppers for more local food, has been welcomed by the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW).

‘The Nation’s Local Foodmakers’ will see Morrisons recruit more than 200 new suppliers from across England, Scotland and Wales in the first year. Morrisons is inviting foodmakers to pitch for their place in its supermarkets via a series of 12 regional events starting in Yorkshire on March 14.

The move comes as a new report published today by leading experts on global food issues led by Professor Tim Benton, from the University of Leeds, says that only half (52%) of food eaten in the UK comes from our farmers.

In the British Food report, Professor Benton says that in light of uncertainties globally it makes increasing sense to build up a stronger local food sector here in the UK and calls on British retailers, producers and customers to recognise the wider benefits of supporting UK food making and production.

FUW Deputy President Brian Thomas said: “This acknowledgement by Morrisons of the dangers we face in terms of food security and being so reliant on food imports during times of global instability is extremely welcome, and the UK government should also acknowledge this during its negotiations over trade deals and in terms of its local procurement policies.”

“We welcome Morrisons' commitment to UK food and urge other retailers to follow suit. Morrison's work in terms of producing this document and their commitments to increasing local and UK procurement is in part a response to the risks posed by Brexit to their own business in terms of losing important supply chains and the impacts of exchange rates and that now is the time for supermarkets to better connect with farmers.”

Mr Thomas added that unfortunately for Wales, the greatest opportunities in the short term are for arable and horticultural producers (production carried out on only around 5% of Wales' agricultural land), but there are potentially other beneficiaries - dairy and beef producers for example.

In the longer term, he highlighted that it would be beneficial to see supermarkets like Morrisons encouraging those with land which is productive enough and who used to grow crops, vegetables etc. half a century ago to go back to doing this -  but it will have to make sense economically and will need significant investment.

“We must not forget the importance of our export markets and the complexity of food chains - those at greatest risk from losing export markets are sheep producers, due to the seasonality of production. We have lots at certain times and need to export it and our reliance on exporting cuts we don't tend to eat to continental markets in order to make up the value of animals. 30-40% of lamb is exported to mainland EU - so a trade deal with the EU is essential for Wales' farmers,” added Mr Thomas.

[caption id="attachment_7704" align="alignleft" width="300"] FUW Meirionnydd members highlight devastating effects high business rates will have on rural economy.[/caption]

From April 1, many businesses will see their business rates increasing dramatically, crippling many rural businesses and prompting the Farmers’ Union of Wales to call on Chancellor Philip Hammond to use his budget next month to reduce the huge increases.

The last time rates were set was seven years ago, but property price changes since then have led to big winners and losers. Rates will fall for 920,000 businesses, remain the same for another 420,000, and increase for 510,000 across the UK.

Under the current scheme, business premises with a rateable value of up to £6,000 will receive 100% relief and those with a rateable value between £6,001 and £12,000 will receive relief on a tapered basis from 100% to zero.

To highlight the point, the Meirionnydd branch of the FUW has met with their local MP Liz Saville Roberts to discuss the alarming increases, how business rates are set, and that the basis for the rates can differentiate between businesses.

FUW Meirionnydd County Executive Officer Huw Jones said: “This is an issue which would greatly affect the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency, which is considered one of the poorest throughout the UK in terms of household income. But it will also have a devastating effect across Wales and our rural communities. Some businesses are seeing hykes of £15,000 or more, threatening their viability.”

FUW Head of Policy Dr Nick Fenwick, said: “We have written to the Chancellor to highlight the extreme impact these changes will have on large numbers of businesses, but we would also urge businesses to contact their MPs and AMs.

“Many farm businesses which have tried to make up for falls in income by diversifying are now seeing their efforts wiped out by this rise.”

Those who think they may be affected can visit www.gov.uk/correct-your-business-rates to check the rateable value of their property set by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and used by local councils to calculate business rates.

The site can also be used to request changes to property or valuation details if it’s believed the VOA figures are wrong if you think they’re wrong.

[caption id="attachment_7688" align="alignleft" width="300"] Jonty from Swayne Johnson Solicitors, Rhun ap Iorwerth AM, Janet Phillips WAG, Trystan Sion Farming Connect getting their day off to a racing start[/caption]

Farmers on Anglesey got their day off to a racing start when they joined the Farmers’ Union of Wales farmhouse breakfast at Cartio Mon, Bodedern.

The breakfast, which was well attended by members, was part of the FUW’s farmhouse breakfast week campaign. It aimed to help politicians, key stakeholders and the general public to appreciate the important role the food and drink sector plays in their everyday lives.

“We enjoyed a great breakfast here at Cartio Mon and I would like to thank you for supporting us on the day. This breakfast campaign provided an opportunity to promote the quality premium local produce that farmers grow for us every day of the year and throughout breakfast week we put a spotlight on the importance of our rural economy,” said FUW Anglesey County Chairman Peter Williams.

[caption id="attachment_7689" align="alignright" width="300"] Cadi Roberts and Eirian Williams enjoying Welsh farmhouse breakfast week[/caption]

Over the last year the FUW has been busy highlighting why farming matters – not just in terms of food security but also in terms of our rural economy and our rural communities.

As well as raising the profile of Welsh farming, the Anglesey branch also raised £365 for BHF Cymru, the FUW President’s chosen charity.