Whilst most farmers see their role as raising and preparing high quality stock for the live market or directly to the slaughterhouse, Sion Ifans, Chairman of Merionethshire FUW, sees a wider supply chain responsibility, from 'gate to plate', and has demonstrated the importance of communicating with his customers.

The background stems from a conversation he had with the owner of the local Camlan Garden Centre and Shop in Dinas Mawddwy, near Machynlleth. When Sion asked why local lamb couldn't be sold in the shop, the owner replied that it was hard to find. Typical of Sion, and with his enthusiasm and interest, he decided to do something about the situation and respond positively.

He arranged for his own lambs from Brynuchaf Farm to be transported to Randall Parker abattoir in Llanidloes, and then cut by butcher Marcus Williams, again locally in Llanidloes. The terms and conditions were decided, and the venture started in April 2019. It quickly developed into supplying 2 lambs a week to the shop, and now supplies 3 lambs a week on a fairly regular basis.

The ‘Cig Oen Mawddwy’ brand was developed and is now popular not only with local residents, but also by the thousands who pass daily on the nearby A470 trunk road. The work gives Sion a great deal of pleasure.

by Angharad Evans, Welsh Editor

At the start of a New Year, I'm not going to greet you with the traditional Happy New Year, but rather I’m going to wish you a Better New Year, and after 2020, the word better is more important than ever. Hopefully 2021 will be full of health, hope, success and happiness for us all.

We have been living in the shadow of Brexit for years now, and despite all the uncertainty, farming has to continue with the lambing season imminent for many of us. But the challenges and uncertainties of Brexit are not going to stop one Carmarthenshire farmer from diversifying into the agricultural industry.

We are more accustomed to seeing Nigel Owens on a rugby pitch than a farm field, but having confirmed that he wants to retire from his career as a professional referee, after 100 test matches, he now wants to swap the rugby boots for wellies.

by Angharad Evans, Welsh Editor

65 years old – that is 65 years, 23725 days, 569400 hours and 2,049,840,000 seconds of the Farmers’ Union of Wales – Happy Birthday to us!

We are celebrating the Union’s 65^th birthday, but did you know, that it all started with a conversation in a Riley 3.5 litre travelling on the A40 from London to Carmarthenshire?

The Riley’s passengers, Ivor T Davies (Chairman of Carmarthenshire NFU County Executive Committee) and J B Evans (Carmarthenshire NFU County Secretary) felt that they had wasted a long day at the NFU’s Council meeting at the headquarters in Bedford Square as nobody was listening to Welsh farmers.  During that journey, the two decided that they wanted to take a stance, one that would change the future for Welsh farmers forever.

We are celebrating the Farmers’ Union of Wales' 65th birthday, an important milestone in our history. Who better to mark this occasion than our President Mr Glyn Roberts.

Well…where have the last five years gone?? I remember, delivering my speech for the Union's sixtieth anniversary in Carmarthen like it was yesterday. In my speech that evening I used a ship as a comparison of the importance of structure to the Union in serving its members. Five years on and my hair has gone white! I never imagined what the future of agriculture would look like.

There was no mention of…

• Brexit,
• Covid-19,
• Changes to the industry's funding structure
• Internal Market Bill
• The dispute that arises from the Agricultural Bill, and the possibility that the quality of imported food will not be of the same quality as what is produced in this country.

For people, reaching 65 years is a sign of slowing down ... but I can assure you ... the FUW will not be slowing down at all.

I firmly believe that the FUW is needed now - more than ever - if we are to meet the needs of Welsh farmers. Remember that our only goal is to benefit the farmers of Wales.

Let us never forget the effort, perseverance and courage of the early pioneers.

by Elin Jones MS

I'm sure there aren't many politicians that can say that their political upbringing is rooted in the founding and early years of the Farmers’ Union of Wales. But that's true in my case. Some readers of Y Tir will know that I've written in the past about my Wncwl Jac, J.B. Evans Llanybydder. Wncwl Jac was the first General Secretary of the Union and one of the key figures who left the NFU 65 years ago and created the Farmers’ Union of Wales.

He was a paid employee of the NFU and worked in Carmarthenshire with the tenant farmers in the upper Tywi valley who faced losing their farms to compulsory purchase by the Forestry Commission in the early 50s of the last century. In the words of Gwenallt in his famous poem Rhydcymerau, the battle of Wncwl Jac and the Union then was to oppose:

Woods where once was community,

A forest where once were farms,

by The Rt Hon Lord Morris of Aberavon, KG, QC

It is a privilege to congratulate the FUW to celebrate its 65th anniversary. There can’t be many of us around who were present almost at its creation.

I am not going to fall into the temptation of old men to dwell on the past. The incredible difficulties of setting up the FUW were set out in my book, “Fifty years in Politics and the Law.”

I have added a little to them in my recent book in Welsh, “Cardi yn y Cabinet”. (Y Lolfa, Talybont) in which there is an excellent photograph taken during the visit of my wife and I to the FUW office in Dolgellau a few years ago. It was a poignant visit to the town where the Union’s hopes of making headway in North Wales were nearly crushed. However, my instructions were to pick myself up and go further north. Fortunately, having just left the Army and taking part in military manoeuvres on the plains of Germany, I had been taught if you face an insurmountable obstacle, you find a way round it.

I try to visit each year your pavilion at the Royal Welsh Show, which I had the privilege of opening. I am fortunate in a well-informed House of Lords so far as agriculture is concerned, to do what I can to speak up for Welsh agriculture and to fight for the repatriation of powers from Brussels to Cardiff rather than Westminster.

On the second reading of the Agriculture Bill I welcomed the Trade & Agricultural Commission and commended the appointment of your President to it.