The winner of the Farmers' Union of Wales £1,000 student bursary scheme will be announced in the presence of the top three candidates on the opening day (Monday November 28) of the Royal Welsh Winter Fair.

The three finalists are 18-year-olds Carys Mair Jones, of Glanbynant, Gwynfe Road, Llandeilo and Ilan Llewelyn Hughes, Erw Fair, Llangwm, Corwen, and 16-year-old Eurof Edwards, Erw Deg, Llangernyw, Abergele, Conwy.

They will find out which of the £700, £200 and £100 bursaries they have won when the judges announce their decision in the FUW Pavilion - alongside the main Royal Welsh Show ring at Llanelwedd - at 11.15am.

All the candidates were asked to outline in no more than 250 words what winning the bursary would mean to them and how it could benefit their future career.

Meanwhile, the FUW stand - alongside the cattle ring in the Livestock Complex Hall 1 - will be a hive of activity.

The winners of an FUW-organised national children's competition to design a Christmas card will be presented with their prizes by union president Emyr Jones at 9.30am on the opening day.

The competition was split into two categories - English and Welsh designs. The criterion for the entries was that they should depict a farming scene with a Christmas theme.

The Welsh category was won by nine-year-old Rhys Williams, a pupil at Ysgol Llanafan, near Aberystwyth. His winning design depicted Santa Claus driving a tractor above a row of sheep.

The winner of the English category is nine-year-old Alex Mary Charman, a pupil at Priory Church in Wales School, Brecon, whose winning picture showed Santa flying into the sky on a tractor pulled by a reindeer.

Both win a £25 Argos voucher plus £100 of Atebol vouchers for their schools.

The judging panel also decided to award five-year-old Gwilym Workman, a pupil at Ysgol Pontsenni, Brecon, with a highly commended prize as they were delighted with his design of a snow man. He will also receive a £25 Argos voucher.

Most of the competition entries will form a colourful centrepiece to the FUW's stand where the public will be able to buy the cards in packs of 10 for £5 with the proceeds going to the FUW President's charity - Cancer Research Wales.

The cards will also be available to purchase from FUW offices around the country or by mail order from the union's head office in Aberystwyth.

FUW members and supporters are also welcome to call at the stand for refreshments where they can enter a draw for a Welsh food hamper, with proceeds going to Cancer Research Wales, and fill in a topical questionnaire to be entered into another draw for a food hamper.

Children will be urged to name a giant Teddy Bear which will take pride of place alongside the stand's traditional Christmas tree.

Free professional advice on issues such as renewable energy, tenancy rights, compulsory purchase and rural property issues will also be available to farmers calling at the stand where chartered surveyors Philip Meade and Eifion Bibby of Davis Meade Property Consultants will be available for a free consultation.

THE Farmers' Union of Wales has welcomed the Welsh Government's "sensible" approach to the planned introduction of buffer zones alongside watercourses to tackle water pollution from agriculture.

"We were concerned that the Welsh Government would 'gold plate' a new Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) and adopt higher standards than the European minimum," said FUW deputy director of agricultural policy Rhian Nowell-Phillips.

"So we are pleased that the deputy agriculture minister has taken heed of the FUW's lobbying and decided to implement only the minimum requirement for farmers in Wales."

It will mean that, from January 1 2012, all farmers who claim payments under the Single Payment Scheme will be prohibited from spreading inorganic fertilisers within two metres of the surface of a watercourse and manures within 10 metres. Application of manures will also be prohibited within 50 metres of boreholes, springs and wells.

"We felt strongly that the original proposals to increase the minimum standard imposed by Europe were not backed up by scientific evidence and we urged the Welsh Government not to gold plate cross-compliance regulations and adopt a higher standard than the minimum required," Ms Nowell-Phillips added.

[caption id="attachment_4578" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Dilwyn John[/caption]

Newly-elected chairman of Farmers' Union of Wales' common land committee Dilwyn John today described the implications of abolishing Less Favoured Area (LFA) payments in favour of the Glastir agri-environment scheme as severely threatening for commoning communities.

Mr John, a past FUW Brecon and Radnor county chairman, farms around 240 acres at Dan Y Graig Farm, Cwmtaff, Merthyr Tydfil, and has grazing rights on Vaynor commons for 1,500 sheep.

Together with his wife, Beth, he runs a flock of 700 South Wales Mountain ewes.

"At a meeting of the common land committee delegates described a wide range of problems they were experiencing in trying to access Glastir, all of which represent a major barrier for graziers associations in areas where farm incomes are set to drop significantly when Tir Mynydd is abolished," said Mr John.

"Wales has the highest proportion of common land in the UK, and around 18 per cent of Welsh farms declare common land annually. The EU rules governing schemes such as Glastir mean there are inherent obstacles to many commons entering Glastir and in some areas these are insurmountable."

Mr John said that in some areas the involvement of inactive graziers who had previously shown no interest in a common was splitting communities and preventing access to the scheme.

"Other examples of problems include those with very few rights outvoting genuine graziers, because the European Commission has refused to accept that the more rights you have the more control you have of a common.

"This means people with grazing rights for just a few animals can, in some cases, have the same power as graziers who are farming a common and have rights to graze thousands of animals."

Members have also experienced obstacles as a result of the Countryside Council of Wales refusing to allow commoners to change grazing patterns in order to access Glastir while others believed that changes to grazing regimes could damage environments and result in major fire risks.

"Glastir is a dog's dinner and a recipe for disaster for many commons, with many of the problems being a direct result of the EC's failure to accept that our system of commoning is unique and requires rules which are far more tailor made," Mr John added.

"The abolition of Tir Mynydd, combined with the Welsh Government's failure to persuade the EU to make allowances for these unique farming systems, means a disaster for many of our most vulnerable upland communities."

[caption id="attachment_4575" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Dai Miles[/caption]

The opening of a new £1.5 million dairy in Carmarthenshire that will process and bottle up to 10 million litres of milk each year was welcomed by the Farmers' Union of Wales today.

The Proper Welsh Milk Company officially opened the dairy in Whitland. It is the first to be built in Wales for more than a generation.

FUW Pembrokeshire county branch president and director of The Proper Welsh Milk Company Dai Miles said: "The opening of the new dairy is excellent news for the Welsh dairy industry.

"All of our milk is sourced from local farms and will reach Welsh stores within 24 hours of collection.

"There is a lot of high quality milk being produced in Wales but the trouble is that most of it has been bottled and processed in England and then it has to make the journey back here to Wales.

"Twenty or 30 years ago there was probably a dairy in every Welsh town but as road networks grew so the smaller dairies were closed.

"This left only a couple of units in North Wales and some very small operations in the South, meaning that almost every pint of milk you've drunk lately has travelled hundreds of miles," said Mr Miles.

"Having the new dairy here means that we can reduce journey times and mileage for getting our milk from the farm to the consumers and it will boost jobs. In the current economic climate and rising fuel costs this is great news for farmers and consumers.

"Welsh dairy farmers have a limited range of options when looking to sell their milk and often have to accept unfair and unclear contracts, which requires them to sell all their milk to just one buyer who has the monopoly over the price they are willing to pay for the milk.

"We are currently looking for more conventional milk suppliers and in future we hope to diversify into higher value dairy products," added Mr Miles.