West Wales farmer and entrepreneur, Brian Jones, who formed Castell Howell Foods in the early 1980s, has been recognised for his services to agriculture in Carmarthen with the Farmers’ Union of Wales - United Counties Agricultural and Hunters Society award.
Flintshire farmers are invited to join the Farmers’ Union of Wales at their Annual General Meeting to discuss the the red meat industry in Wales, rural crime in north east Wales and potential funding opportunities for farm businesses.
The event is held on Monday, 30 October at Plas Hafod Hotel, Gwernymynydd, Mold and will start at 7.30pm.
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The uncertainty created by Brexit and a desire to see the family farm succeed for years to come, led one Welshpool farming family to make a feathery change.
Farmers’ Union of Wales members Mark and Helen Williams, who farm 40 suckler cows and 900 ewes at Pen Y Derw, near Welshpool, decided to diversify into egg production and have been up-and-running since June this year.
A Pembrokeshire dairy farmer has been appointed to head-up the Farmers’ Union of Wales Milk and Dairy Produce committee at a recent meeting in Aberystwyth.
Dai Miles,together with his wife Sharron, took on the tenancy of Barnsley Farm, Crowhill, Haverfordwest in 1997. At the time farm stretched to 143 acres and was a stock/arable unit which the couple converted into an organic dairy unit starting with 33 cows and leased milk quota.
In 2001 they took on a further 90 acres of pasture land and then in 2005 the neighbouring farm within the same estate. Currently they have 100 cows and 65 followers farming approx. 300 plus acres.
The couple are currently planning to relocate the dairy unit to a new site with modern facilities onto to a farm adjoining Barnsley, which is in the process of being purchased.
The evidence supporting the need for the UK to remain in the single market and customs union after Brexit is now incontrovertible says the Farmers’ Union of Wales, which has called for common sense to prevail.
“Continuing membership of these two institutions is the only way to avoid the dire collapse in incomes predicted in the latest AHDB report and in the FAPRI report in August,” said FUW President Glyn Roberts.
“Talks with the EU about some kind of alternative arrangement have not even begun, yet we only have around seventeen months before we leave the EU.”
The latest Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) ‘Horizon’ publication released last week reported the results of detailed modelling of different Brexit scenarios.