[caption id="attachment_5310" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Life Insurance Consultant, Mark Williams[/caption]

FUW Insurance Services have appointed a new Life Insurance Consultant to progress the organisation in the Pure Protection insurance market.

Mr Mark Williams, 48, from Felinfoel, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, joins the FUW insurance team with plenty of experience after previously having worked for the Cooperative Insurance Society for 14 years.

Mark, who has also been an Independent Financial Adviser for the last 9 years, said: “I am very excited by my appointment as The Life Insurance Consultant with the FUW Insurance Services Ltd.

“I feel that, in my experience, people are keen to cover their cars, houses, farms, commercial vans etc, but sometimes neglect to protect the most important thing in their lives - their family. I look forward to advising new and existing customers on this area and offer this service to FUW customers.”

Mark is married to Angela, who is an insurance administrator in the Carmarthen office and has three children, Ben 17, Sam 14 and Rosie 10.

“Our direct selling of Pure Protection products such as mortgage protection insurance, critical illness cover and income protection is a new venture for FUW Insurance Services, having for many years simply acted as an introducer of these products. I am convinced that with Mark’s knowledge, experience and expertise in this market, this new venture will prove a huge success,” said FUW Insurance Services managing director Mark Roberts.

[caption id="attachment_5307" align="aligncenter" width="300"] (from left to right) FUW Insurance Services managing director Mark Roberts with newly appointed FUW Insurance Services operations manager Tony Succamore[/caption]

The Insurance arm of the Farmers’ Union of Wales has appointed a new operations manager to carry out its day to day operations.   

Mr Tony Succamore,60, is taking over the role left by Mr Cameron Thomas of managing FUW Insurance Services’  and will further be responsible for the line management of the organisations insurance advisers, data input team and of course the operations administrators. 

“I am delighted to be joining the FUW Insurance Services and am looking forward to overseeing the smooth running of the organisation and am particularly interested in the personal development of the staff,” added Mr Succamore, who has previously won the National Training Award for Wales and the Powys Business Award for training and development. 

He has lived in Wales for the past 25 years and is going to be based in the FUW Insurance Services Newtown office as well as at the organisations head office in Aberystwyth. 

Tony, who is married to Shirley, lives in Four Crosses, Llanymynech and is a very active member of the Shropshire and Mid Wales Insurance Institute for whom he has served as president for 2 consecutive years. 

“Tony has had a long and varied career within insurance and immediately prior to his joining FUW Insurance Services he was senior account executive for Arthur J Gallagher with responsibility for advising and placing all agricultural insurance for over 50 offices within the Gallagher group.  

“Before joining Gallagher’s, he was a director at Caleb Roberts Insurance Services where in addition to managing the branches he was also their HR director with responsibility for training the group’s staff,” said FUW Insurance Services managing director Mr Mark Roberts.

As the May 15 deadline for the Single Application Form (SAF) looms, the Farmers’ Union of Wales is warning farmers to ‘check, check and check again’ rather than risk making mistakes on the most important form they are likely to complete in a decade. 

“The SAF, also known to farmers as the IACS, will establish Welsh Basic Payment Scheme entitlements for the foreseeable future, and under EC Regulations the penalties for errors are harsh,” said FUW head of policy Nick Fenwick. 

“There is a one percent payment penalty for every day a form is late after May 15 up until June 9, and forms submitted after midnight on June 9 are rejected outright.”  

Mr Fenwick said that the rules were equally strict when it came to errors on forms and corrections, despite the forms and mapping requirements being more complex than ever before. 

“A single tick in the wrong box or a miscalculation of eligible areas can result in vast financial penalties or even lead to the loss of everything,” he added. 

Mr Fenwick said farmers should not only ensure forms were submitted on time, but also take the opportunity after submission to check the statements provided by Welsh Government. 

“This year more than ever before farmers should not sit back after submitting the SAF – they should take the time to check the statement provided by Welsh Government for errors.  

“Under the EC regulations, if Welsh Government find an error before a farmer does, it is too late for the error to be corrected, so failing to look over the statement in the coming days could be extremely expensive and have long term repercussions for businesses.” 

[caption id="attachment_5302" align="aligncenter" width="269"] Dr Russ Morphew, Aberystwyth University Lecturer of Biochemistry-will be at hand to discuss Liver fluke at the NSA Welsh Sheep event 2015.[/caption]

The Farmers’ Union of Wales is putting the spotlight on Liver fluke at next week’s NSA Welsh Sheep event, Tuesday May 19, held at Kerry, Newtown, to highlight the most recent research aiming to protect sheep from this parasite.

“Liver fluke disease costs the industry millions of pounds every year in lost productivity if left untreated and we are therefore pleased to be joined at the FUW stand by Dr Russ Morphew, lecturer in Biochemistry at Aberystwyth University, to answer any questions visitors to the event may have about current and future research into liver fluke vaccination,” said FUW animal health and welfare committee chairman Dr Catherine Nakielny.

The sheep industry sees around 10 – 12 percent of liver condemnations during peak periods, with approximately 27,735 livers affected in a 6 month period in Wales  and liver fluke remains one of the most economically important parasitic diseases of farmed livestock.

Dr Morphew, whose current research aims to identify and evaluate methods of controlling  liver fluke, rumen fluke and other ruminant parasites using modern functional genomics methodologies, obtained his PhD in 2007 from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences [IBERS], at Aberystwyth University.

Dr Morphew’s PhD focused on the interaction of agricultural parasites and their hosts, using modern molecular biology for the analysis of proteins.

“The economic impact of this disease on ewes can mean that live weight gain and multiple births are reduced by more than 10 percent, whilst lambs birth weight could be reduced by more than 5 percent and lamb weight gain can be reduced by up to 30 percent if left untreated.

“We would like to invite our members and visitors to the show to join us at our stand in Shed 1, stand 26 to discuss the potential ways forward for combating liver fluke and our policy team are also at hand to answer any other agri-policy questions you may have,” added Dr Nakielny.

The importance of family farms and the benefits they bring to the countryside remain at the top of the agenda for the Farmers’ Union of Wales at this year’s Royal Welsh Spring Festival (16 – 17 May).

“Having supported and fought for the needs of Welsh family farms for 60 years, the union is once again highlighting the plight of those who make a living off the land here in Wales and what better place to do it than at the Spring Festival,” said FUW president Emyr Jones.

“We do need Governments to understand and appreciate the importance of those family farms. As family farmers we are passionate about the food we produce but passion alone cannot sustain our businesses.”

Mr Jones stressed that the role farming plays in maintaining our natural environment and rural communities, coupled with the importance of maintaining and strengthening those political frameworks which protect our food security, mean agriculture, and in particular the family farm, should be high up on the agenda for any Government.

The union will work with the new Westminster Government to get the best possible deal for Welsh agriculture, just as it has done since 1955 when it was first established, and is looking forward to meeting the representatives of agriculture in the near future.

“We are also raising money for our charities T? Hafan and T? Gobaith in a bid to hit the £50,000 mark by the Royal Welsh show. Visitors to our stand have the chance to win a top quality BBQ set by purchasing raffle tickets, with all the proceeds going to the charity fund ,” added Mr Jones.

Cardiff-based T? Hafan and Oswestry-based Hope House Children’s Hospices which includes T? Gobaith at Conwy will share the proceeds of the fund that will come to a close in July.

“The FUW is looking forward to welcome members and friends of the union to the stand in the South Glamorgan Hall over the course of the Spring Festival weekend,” added Mr Jones.

[caption id="attachment_5295" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Vale of Glamorgan police force update FUW members on rural crime prevention[/caption]

A recent Rural Watch demonstration and information event gave Farmers’ Union of Wales Glamorganshire members an insight into the latest developments in rural crime prevention.

The demonstration was held at FUW Glamorganshire county executive officer Rachel Saunders’ farm at Blackland Farm, Bonvilston last Friday (April 23) and organised with the Neighbourhood Policing Team.

Farmers heard that the Vale of Glamorgan Police force is in the process of creating a rural crime strategy to target typical rural crime in the hope that a standard rural crime strategy can eventually be enforced across Wales.

Wildlife Crime Officer PC Mark Goulding said the police recognising that there is a need to protect the rural economy from theft and crime in order to support and maintain a strong rural community - a sentiment long supported by the union.

“It was great for our members to be able to discuss some of the methods currently used to prevent rural crime for example with trial cameras which record activity during the day and night to capture what is happening in barns and fields,” said Mrs Saunders.

“We were particular pleased to hear that the police want to build on the simple methods of community messaging systems which in the Vale is Rural Watch and includes Gate Safe, e-mails and texts to inform members of the rural community about suspicious activities.

“The Gate Safe scheme was set up during the time when fly grazing was at its peak in the Vale and was a great way to engage with farmers and the rural community.

“The signs were handed to farmers who were victims of crime to display on their gates so that patrolling police would see the sign, recognise that the particular farm had been a recent victim of crime and spend more time patrolling that area,” added Mrs Saunders.

Farmers further discussed basic security systems that are inexpensive and will help rural communities to protect their property from theft.

“All who attended found the demonstration very informative and left with a lot of information and ideas to protect their property as well as important contact details of the police officers in charge of rural crime in the Vale area,” added Mrs Saunders.