The FUW has welcomed a U-turn by the Welsh Assembly Government which will allow farmers' entitlements to be re-calculated where they are affected by reductions in common land forage areas.

The decision comes following extensive lobbying by the FUW over a prolonged period.

In the January edition of the WAG publication Gwlad, farmers were informed that they could face a reduction in the notional area they were allocated on commons due to re-mapping, and were told that they may require additional land to activate all their entitlements. The article also advised farmers to consider selling surplus entitlements.

FUW Common Land Committee Chairman, Lorraine Howells, said: "The FUW had written to WAG many times over the past six years warning that re-mapping without re-calculating entitlements would represent a serious departure from the historic single payment system adopted in Wales, and was likely to have severe consequences for large numbers of Welsh farmers."

"We were therefore appalled by the contents of the Gwlad article and immediately stepped up our lobbying, warning that the FUW would support legal action against such a policy."

Under the Welsh Single Payment Scheme, farmers with common land were granted entitlements based upon the forage areas of their common land areas in the years 2000-2002 - areas which were dictated to them by the authorities.

"Commoners had no control over these allocations during 2000-2002, so to suddenly reduce allocations, and thereby incomes, due to re-mapping would have been totally unjust," said Miss Howells.

"There was also a risk that commoners would have been informed of these changes at a time when it would have been too late to take action to minimise losses.

"This is therefore an important and welcome move by the Welsh Government.

"However, commoners should be aware that the re-mapping process is likely to have an impact for commoners in the future, for example in terms of Tir Mynydd payments, and when flat rate payments are introduced under the Common Agricultural Policy," added Miss Howells.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today reacted angrily to the Welsh Assembly Government's decision to reject a way of distributing an emergency EU fund for dairy farmers that would have favoured Wales' smaller producers.

Two distribution options were considered by the Assembly - Option 1: a payment of 0.2 pence per litre (ppl) of production during the 12-month period of greatest market disturbance (1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009) to each dairy farmer and Option 2: a two-tier payment comprising a payment of 0.5ppl on the first 100,000 litres of production plus an estimated payment of 0.15ppl on production over 100,000 litres during the specified period.

Both options had been considered by the FUW's 12 county branches and by the union's milk and dairy produce committee with the overwhelming majority favouring a two-tier mechanism on the grounds that, on average, smaller producers had higher production costs and were, by definition, unable to benefit from production bonuses and other production-related advantages.

"The two-tier system was also backed by members who stood to lose out under such a calculation," said committee chairman, Anglesey dairy farmer Eifion Huws.

"The decision, therefore, comes as a smack in the face for Wales's smaller family farms and I am extremely disappointed that the Minister has not opted for a more equitable system.

"It is claimed that if Wales had chosen an alternative option to the rest of the UK, the payments could not be guaranteed to be made by the deadline of 30 June 2010 by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

"Yet there are less than 2,300 dairy farms in Wales, and a two-tier calculation based on milk production is so straightforward a child could do it. If it is true that the RPA couldn't undertake a simple calculation for such a small number of holdings before July then that demonstrates that the agency is both incompetent and unfit for purpose.

"However, my main concern is that the Minister has simply bowed to pressure from the other devolved regions. While the moneys involved are not substantial, this sends out a damning message regarding the Welsh Assembly Government's support for smaller family farms."

Announcing she had selected Option 1, Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones said it was chosen by the majority of farmers and industry representatives throughout the UK but she admitted in Wales their consultation gave a 50/50 split between both options.

Farmers will be receiving their payments from mid-April 2010 until the end of June.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today described as a positive development the additional 2p per litre former suppliers of collapsed cooperative Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB) are to get for milk they had to sell for a much reduced price before they could find a new buyer.

"We must look on the positive side because most farmers supplying Dairy Farmers did not expect to receive such a payment," said FUW milk committee chairman Eifion Huws.

"It is very welcome but for most suppliers it means an additional payment of hundreds of pounds, not the thousands they would have expected for their milk."

Mr Huws believes it took some farmers up to six weeks to secure a new buyer after receivers Pricewaterhouse Coopers were appointed in June 2009.

The unexpected additional payments were possible following successful cash collections by the receivers from milk customers over the past six months.

DFB employed a total of 2,200 at its cheese factory at Llandyrnog, Denbighshire, and liquid milk dairy in Bridgend plus other sites in the south-west and north-east of England and the Midlands.

It had 1,800 farmer members across Great Britain who supplied over one billion litres to the food and drink industry.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today welcomed the conclusions of the Assembly's rural development sub-committee's inquiry into the new Glastir land management scheme outlined in a letter to rural affairs minister Elin Jones.

The letter by sub-committee chairman Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM calls for greater clarity over the scheme. The chairman of the FUW's land use and parliamentary committee Richard Vaughan gave evidence to the sub-committee when it met in Dolgellau last month.

He highlighted the confusion among farmers and demanded that the scheme be deferred until there is greater clarity of all the options.

"The union fully supports the sub-committee's recommendations urging the Assembly Government to review its decision not to provide project officer support for the entry-level scheme and to consider whether its offices have the capacity to deal with increased demand for support from farmers," said Mr Vaughan.

"Glastir represents a seed change for farmers in Wales and it's high time that the Assembly realised that farmers need time to adapt and more details about the scheme so that they can make the right business decisions."