Weeks after Farm Business Survey data revealed a devastating fall in farm incomes - with hill sheep and beef farms hit worst by a 60 per cent fall in net farm incomes for 2012/13 - natural resources and food minister Alun Davies opted for a maximum 15 per cent CAP modulation rate that could lead to a fall in direct payments to Welsh agriculture.

FUW president Emyr Jones refers to this decision in his New Year’s Message that follows….

On December 18, Scotland announced a modulation rate of 9.5 per cent, citing the “essential” Scottish Less Favoured Area Support Scheme as one of the key justifications for ensuring sufficient funds are made available for rural development.

On the same day, Welsh Natural Resources and Food Minister Alun Davies announced a modulation rate of 15 per cent with no such assurances regarding our own Less Favoured Area (LFA). Meanwhile, levels of modulation in England, France, Germany and Italy will be 12, 3, 4.5, and 0 per cent respectively.

The decision, which could represent a real terms fall in Direct Payments to Welsh agriculture of as much as 20 per cent by 2019, comes just weeks after Farm Business Survey data revealed a devastating fall in farm incomes, with hill sheep and beef farms hit worst by a 60 per cent fall in net farm incomes for 2012/13 - down to £11,377.

While the aspirations of the Minister in terms of using Pillar 2 funds to make farms more profitable are ones we would all agree with in principle, his decision reflects a particularly British and Anglo-Saxon trait, which is to ignore the fact that we are part of a common market in which moves which undermine the financial stability of our own farm businesses simply strengthen our competitors in other countries - countries which better understand the crucial role direct payments play in maintaining food production and rural communities, and without which we would have seen a far worse outcome to the recent negotiations on the CAP.

And, of course, we have yet to see any Welsh plans which will guarantee the replacement income lost through modulation, not to mention the abolition of LFA payments which the Scots regard as “essential” for rural communities.

But above all else, the decision to implement the full 15 per cent modulation rate goes against the Government’s stated aim that it wishes to minimise the inevitable disruption which will accompany the move to flat-rate payments - disruption which will occur whichever model is implemented.

With a Ministerial announcement on direct payments and the domestic co-funding of modulated monies due on January 14t, two key decisions remain available to the Minister in terms of reducing the adverse impacts that 15 per cent modulation and the transition to flat-rate payments will cause for Welsh farm businesses:

Firstly, by match-funding, £1 for £1, modulation monies, the Government would demonstrate that it is genuine about its commitment to using rural development monies to make good the potential losses faced by our food producers.

And secondly, by returning to its original position on the transition period to flat-rate payments by allowing a transition period of more than five years  - as is allowed by the Regulations - the Government can ensure that those businesses which face the greatest disruption under the new CAP will have more time to adjust.

Welsh farmers are more likely to spend their holidays in Wales than any other part of the UK or Europe, the Farmers’ Union of Wales has learnt from a recent survey.

Visitors to the FUW stand at the recent Royal Welsh Winter Fair said that they are also more likely to spend time away in caravans and farm-based accommodation in their homeland and many farming families would spend a few days camping at the Royal Welsh Show as part of their holidays.

“Almost 60 per cent of those that responded to the survey said they took regular holidays and 66 per cent of those stay in Wales for their annual vacation,” said FUW farm diversification committee chairman Eurwyn Roberts.

“It is very encouraging to see that so many farmers support the Welsh tourism industry by staying in farm-based accommodation and caravans.

“The Welsh countryside has a wide choice of scenery and outdoor activities and this is something that farmers here have, of course, appreciated and known for a long time,

“Over the years many farm businesses have diversified into tourist-based activities and it is great to know that farmers themselves support these enterprises,” added Mr Roberts.

Old livestock handling systems used on farms throughout Wales may well pose significant safety risks to livestock handlers, a recent survey by the Farmers’ Union of Wales has revealed.

The survey carried out during the recent Royal Welsh Winter Fair highlighted that around 65% of on farm cattle handling systems are over 10 years old,  whilst 40% of sheep systems are also over this age which might pose safety risks to livestock handlers.

“The use of livestock handling systems has become more and more important from a health and safety perspective over recent years, especially if we look at TB testing in cattle and the clipping of cattle on farm prior to delivering them to slaughter,” said FUW agricultural education and training committee chairman Alun Edwards.

Handling livestock is a dangerous activity and sadly accidents involving livestock account for a large proportion of farm fatalities.

The number of reported injuries incurred while handling livestock has amounted to almost 1,000 over the last 10 years and inappropriate handling facilities are often to blame.

“Despite the growing need to handle livestock for a range of statutory, veterinary or routine husbandry reasons, there is little resource within the industry to invest in handling systems.

“Handling cattle always involves a risk of injury from crushing, kicking, butting or goring and farmers should always ensure that the handling systems are fit for purpose and staff are adequately trained and competent,” added Mr Edwards.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales strongly condemned today’s announcement by Natural Resources and Food Minister Alun Davies that Wales will apply the maximum 15% modulation rate from direct farm payments, believing it will disadvantage farmers in Wales.

FUW president Emyr Jones said: “Scotland announced a rate of 9.5% today and other EU states and regions are expected to announce low rates.

“Under the Minister’s announcement, 15% of farmers’ direct payments (Pillar 1) will be transferred into the Rural Development programme (Pillar 2) which funds, amongst other things, agri-environment, processing, marketing tourism and wider rural development programmes.

“The FUW had called for a stepped approach to modulation as opposed to going for the maximum straight away and there are now fears that Welsh farmers will be disadvantaged over other farmers in the EU.

“The cut in the EU budget was already going to have a major impact on the single farm payment and today’s announcement will make things worse.

“The Minister had previously indicated that he didn’t want to unduly disrupt the industry in converting from a historic to a flat rate payment system, but we are concerned that today’s announcement could potentially create far more disruption than any payment rate decision.”

Loyal workers are often delighted on retirement to receive a memento of their service such as a watch or clock but Farmers' Union of Wales employee Meinir Bartlett was over the moon when members and colleagues presented her with - a traditional MMB-branded milk churn!

Mrs Bartlett of Furnace, Llanelli, retires this month and colleagues bought the churn on eBay from a seller in Llandudno and paid the extra for it to be posted to the union’s Carmarthen county office.

The churn will be a permanent reminder of the day she started her career in agriculture as a switchboard operator/receptionist with the then MMB (Milk Marketing Board) in Llanelli more than 40 years ago.

She has worked at the FUW's Carmarthen office for the past 17 years and recently she received this year's FUW/United Counties Agricultural & Hunters Society award for outstanding service to agriculture in Carmarthenshire.

While employed by the MMB she oversaw the introduction of the automatic recording of milk litres collected from individual farms throughout South Wales.

After the MMB ceased to exist in October 1994 she worked for its successor body, Milk Marque, until October 1995 when the office in Llanelli closed.

She then worked for West Wales TEC until April 1996 when she joined the FUW as administrative assistant. She was promoted to senior administrative assistant during February 2001 and to county executive officer in November 2006.

FUW president Emyr Jones said: "Meinir has been an outstanding success in her role as county executive officer and has made a significant contribution to agriculture in Carmarthenshire. She is an excellent ambassador and spokesman for agriculture."

For many years, Mrs Bartlett has organised a number of important agricultural events in the county including the FUW/HSBC Bank plc eve of the Welsh Dairy Show function and award for outstanding service to the Welsh dairy industry.

She also organised a dinner at Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli, in 2010 which raised £2,660 for the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI).

Mrs Bartlett's successor as Carmarthenshire county executive officer is David Waters, past operational police sergeant based at Carmarthen, who has worked for Dyfed Powys Police for nearly 27 years. 

He is from a local farming family and both his father and brother are still farming. He left farming to concentrate on a police career and still assist the family in all activities involving the farming business.

Before joining the police he worked for Dyfed County Council for five years in the highways department involved in road design and conformity with subsidised bus routes.

[caption id="attachment_2697" align="aligncenter" width="548"] Meinir Bartlett with her milk churn[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2698" align="aligncenter" width="940"] FUW Carmarthenshire county chairman Catherine Nakielny (left) presents Meinir Bartlett with her retirement milk churn present.[/caption]

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has welcomed the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) decision to uphold a complaint by the union about an RSPCA advertisement opposing badger culling and has called for the Charity Commission to take a similarly robust approach to the organisation.

An RSPCA press and poster advertisement had featured a syringe and a bullet alongside the headline “VACCINATE OR EXTERMINATE? The UK government wants to shoot England’s badgers. We want to vaccinate them - and save their lives”.

The FUW and Welsh politicians Simon Hart MP and Antoinette Sandbach AM had complained about the advertisements to the ASA, along with 116 members of the public.

The ASA ruled that consumers were likely to interpret the claim, along with the text "The UK government wants to shoot England's badgers", to mean that all badgers would be eradicated in the cull areas, and that claim therefore breached advertising rules.

FUW TB spokesman and vice president Brian Walters said the RSPCA had a track record of making misleading and threatening claims regarding badger culling and had also been censured by the ASA in 2006 following a complaint by the FUW over its “Back off Badgers” campaign.

“In 2012, the RSPCA’s chief executive Gavin Grant described the charity as ‘the oldest law enforcement agency still in existence in this country’ and threatened to campaign to ‘stop consumers drinking milk’ if supermarkets were unable to differentiate between ‘badger friendly milk’ and milk from English badger cull areas,” said Mr Walters.

“Similar, more ominous threats were made during a 2012 BBC Panorama documentary on the English badger cull during which Mr Grant said that ‘The spotlight of attention will be turned on those marksmen and on those who give permission for this cull to take place. They will be named and we will decide as citizens of this country whether they will be shamed.’

“All these factors show a very worrying lurch towards extremism which has occurred over the past two decades, and has undermined some of the core work of what used to be a highly respected charity.” 

Over the past decade, the FUW has submitted numerous complaints to the Attorney General, Charity Commission and ASA regarding the RSPCA’s use of extreme and misleading rhetoric, warning that failure to take action would merely increase the organisation’s tendency towards militant action.

“Such complaints have resulted in decisive action being taken by the ASA, but we believe that the Charity Commission has been less than forceful and its failure to act decisively against the RSPCA has brought all charitable organisations into disrepute.”

Mr Walters called for decisive action to be taken by the Charity Commission in relation to the RSPCA’s lobbying actions, which he described as “aggressive and threatening”.

Earlier this month, the National Audit Office concluded that the Charity Commission was failing to investigate abuses properly, wasting taxpayers' money and putting the good name of the charity sector as a whole at risk. Public Accounts Committee chairman Margaret Hodge claimed the commission had "tough questions to answer".

Mr Walters added: “Revelations earlier this year that the RSPCA has access to certain police records have simply added to what were already extreme concerns.

“It is high time that robust action is taken to return this organisation to the straight and narrow of doing what an animal welfare charity should be doing.”