The Farmers’ Union of Wales has a new presidential team at its helm to lead the organisation forward in its Mission to ensure there are thriving, sustainable family farms in Wales.

Joining newly elected President Ian Rickman at the top are Pembrokeshire dairy farmer Dai Miles as deputy President; North Wales beef and sheep farmer Alun Owen as North Wales Vice President; Glamorgan beef and sheep farmer Brian Bowen as South Wales Vice President and Ceredigion sheep farmer Anwen Hughes as Mid Wales Vice President.

Dai Miles grew up in Felin Fach and attended Aberaeron Comprehensive school. Not from a farming family, Dai started his farming career by attending the Welsh Agricultural College in Aberystwyth where he received a National Diploma in Agriculture and completed a sandwich year at Godor Nantgaredig.

The Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) has said the Welsh Government's announcement that mainstream Glastir contracts will not be extended will cause major concerns across the industry both in terms of the implications for farm businesses and the practicalities of designing and introducing a new replacement scheme over a period of just a few months.

The Welsh Government announced on Friday (21st July) that Glastir Advanced, Glastir Commons and Glastir Organic contracts would not be extended beyond December this year, and that all Welsh farmers would instead be offered the option to sign up to a 12 month whole farm scheme focussing on habitat land.

Wales currently has some 3,000 farms in these environmental agreements that will now come to an end in a few months time. Some of those have been in such agreements for thirty years, and all will have changed their farming practices and stock numbers to cope with the scheme rules.

Uncertainties faced by the farming industry in Wales and what support is required from Government were top of the agenda, when Farmers’ Union of Wales met with Secretary of State David TC Davies in London recently.

A significant scheme that will set out payment mechanisms for the industry in the future, the Sustainable Farming Scheme, offers an opportunity to support the sector if the right financial package is received from Westminster. Discussing the upcoming Sustainable Farming Scheme, FUW officials stressed that whilst it is vitally important that the Welsh Government design a scheme that truly works for every farm in Wales, it is also imperative there is the budget to deliver it.

The UK Government must put its money where its mouth is and show its commitment to Welsh agriculture by delivering the necessary funding from 2025, outside of the Barnett Formula.

Global livestock production to grow over the next decade

Global production of livestock is expected to expand by 1.3% each year for the next decade, a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nation (FAO) has found.

The projected growth through to 2032 is slower than seen in the recent past and around half of the growth is expected to be from poultry meat.

Greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase by half the projected output growth indicating a significant fall in the carbon intensity of agricultural production.