Farmers' Union of Wales members have given their overwhelming support for an EU dairy fund distribution that favours smaller dairy producers.

The EU agreed in December 2009 to allocate €300m to help the European dairy sector which has been severely affected by low milk prices. Wales's share is believed to be around £3m.

Following a meeting of the FUW's milk and dairy produce committee in Aberystwyth, chairman Eifion Huws said: "The consultation was considered by the FUW's 12 county branches and by the union's milk and dairy produce committee.

"The overwhelming majority of members agreed that Wales should opt for a payment of 0.5 pence per litre (ppl) on the first 100,000 litres of production plus an estimated payment of 0.15ppl on production over 100,000 litres. This would target smaller businesses which, on average, have a lower profitability per litre.

"Members acknowledged the fact that all dairy producers had suffered as a result of low farmgate prices and high production costs, and that the profitability per litre was highly variable between farms.

"However, it was agreed that, on average, smaller producers had higher production costs and were, by definition, unable to benefit from production bonuses and other production related advantages.

"We are hardly talking about large sums of money here but the fund will, nevertheless, provide some relief for struggling dairy producers, and the union is firmly in favour of directing support where it is most needed."

The Westminster government's decision to scrap rules allowing holiday accommodation owners to claim certain tax benefits was strongly criticised when a Farmers' Union of Wales delegation from Caernarfonshire met their local MP and the Welsh rural affairs minister.

MP Hywel Williams and the Assembly minister Elin Jones discussed various issues with the delegation during a visit to the Betws Garmon farm of Dewi and Bethan Roberts to see how a young farming couple with three daughters had invested heavily to create holiday accommodation sleeping nine at the farmhouse and a further seven in a nearby workshop.

Benefiting from Wales Tourist Board funding, they also installed a hot tub to offer visitors something different to the usual holiday accommodation.

But their decision to complete the work this year - in a bid to secure exemption from the Chancellor's decision to repeal the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) rules - has resulted in cashflow consequences.

The FUW delegation included the county's representative on the union's farm diversification committee, farmer's wife Anwen Jones, who lets out four holiday cottages at Bettws Bach farm, Rhoslan, near Criccieth, and has already raised the issue with Meirionnydd Nant Conwy MP Elfyn Llwyd.

"We again explained to Mr Williams and the minister how the scrapping of these taxation benefits will seriously affect the income of many FUW members who have diversified into letting out holiday accommodation," said the union's Caernarfonshire county executive officer Gwynedd Watkin.

"We repeated our previous demands on the Chancellor to change his decision, announced in last April's Budget, to scrap the rules which allow losses from FHLs to be offset against other income."

Mr Watkin said the delegation also demanded a curb on harsh cross-compliance penalties recently handed out to farmers which were often disproportionate to the "crime" - especially when a genuine mistake, with no financial gain, had occurred.

"We presented the minister and Mr Williams with a number of cases where farmers had been 'fined', ranging from £1,500 for a basic administrative error to over £90,000 for a planning issue involving 'possible' damage to an ancient monument.

"In the latter case, if the farmer had not been claiming subsidies, the maximum he could be fined by a court is £40,000. It is not right for farmers to be disproportionately penalised so heavily."

The delegation also discussed issues concerning the forthcoming Glastir all-Wales agri-environmental scheme. "Many frustrations were vented with regard to the lack of detailed information about the qualifying criteria and the minister assured us that more information will be forthcoming in the future," Mr Watkin added.

THE Farmers' Union of Wales today welcomed the Welsh Assembly Government's decision to extend the relaxation of rules on supplementary feeding to 28 February 2010.

Reacting to the news, FUW president Gareth Vaughan said: "I am glad that the government has listened to our calls and that common sense has prevailed.

"The significantly colder winter has brought with it animal welfare concerns for livestock farmers.

"With more freezing weather expected this announcement couldn't have come at a better time as it will allow farmers to give additional feed to their livestock during this cold period without risking unfair penalties."

On 15 January 2010 livestock farmers were advised by WAG that they would be able to give their livestock additional feed to help maintain animal welfare during the period of cold weather.

It was announced at that time that the relaxation rules would remain in force until 31 January 2010 unless severe weather conditions persist but due to the prolonged severe weather conditions the relaxation of the supplementary rules has now been extended until 28 February 2010.

Farmers seeking further information should contact their local Divisional Office.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today called on the Westminster and Assembly Governments to provide extra funding urgently for Aberystwyth University's world-class Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) in a bid to prevent it shedding 70 jobs.

The university announced the proposed job losses at a private staff meeting today and revealed IBERS faces a £2.4m deficit over the next two years.

"We believe that there is a strong argument for the Welsh Assembly Government and central Government to step in and provide funds to meet the expected deficit that has led to the imminent loss of these well-paid jobs," said FUW president Gareth Vaughan.

"Over the years spending on scientific research has been scaled down and now is the time that we should be seeing an increase in funding for the type of work being carried out at IBERS, given the importance of agriculture in terms of climate change and feeding the world.

"The work undertaken out at IBERS is within that fundamentally important research area that will affect all our lives in the near future."