Gareth Vaughan was re-elected for the sixth successive time as president of the Farmers’ Union of Wales during the organisation’s council meeting in Aberystwyth this afternoon (Tuesday, June 16).

Mr Vaughan, who begins his seventh year in office, won the overwhelming confidence of the union's members when he was elected by delegates from all of the union's 12 county branches for the top post.

"I’m delighted to be re-elected as president once again and I look forward to driving forward the aims and ambitions of the FUW for another year in what is expected to be a challenging time for the industry," he said.

"We have seen long overdue improvements to livestock prices over the past 12 months - due primarily to the weakness of the pound - but these will have to be sustained for many years if the industry is to make up for what have been dire returns for more than a decade."

Born in Llanidloes in 1941, Mr Vaughan attended Manledd Primary and Llanidloes High Schools.

He left at the age of 15 to work on the family farm, and joined Llangurig Young Farmers Club where his interests included public speaking and drama. He runs a traditional beef and sheep unit at Cwmyrhiewdre Farm, Dolfor, near Newtown.

He farms in partnership with his wife of over 40 years, Audrey, and 11 years ago his daughter Catherine and son-in-law Brian joined the business.

Over the years the family has carried out extensive improvements, with shelter belts, new buildings, land drainage and farm road layouts. Some 2,000 metres of new hedgerow has been planted with the aid of grants from Radnor ESA.

Other hedge improvements were undertaken with the assistance of the Countryside Council for Wales.

Mr Vaughan has been an active member of the FUW for many years. He was chairman of the Newtown branch in 1988-89 and Montgomeryshire county chairman from 1991-93.

He has represented the county on the union’s Grand Council and land use and parliamentary committee, the British Wool Marketing Board, the Meat and Livestock Commission liaison committee and the Agricultural Dwellinghouse Committee.

He was elected as the north Wales member of the FUW's national finance and organisation committee in 1998 before being elected vice president in 2000, deputy president in June 2002 and president in June 2003.

Mr Vaughan places great importance on supporting the local community and is involved with his local agricultural show, new hall committee and other local charities.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales president Gareth Vaughan revealed today he was duty bound to condemn the Welsh Assembly Government’s decision to scrap the Tir Mynydd scheme of payments to farmers within Less Favoured Areas.

"While the Union commends the position taken by the Assembly on Bovine TB, there is one recent WAG decision that we cannot condone and that is the one to abandon Tir Mynydd," Mr Vaughan told the union’s annual general meeting in Aberystwyth.

"This decision brings to an end a policy based upon principles established more than sixty years ago under the 1946 Hill Farming Act - principles that recognise the fundamental importance of maintaining Wales’s farming and rural communities in order to avoid deprivation, land abandonment, and rural depopulation.

"The abandonment of those principles in favour of environmental measures is a position that our members fundamentally oppose, whether changes in focus are driven by the European Commission or by the Assembly Government, and over recent weeks I have been approached by countless numbers of farmers who believe that their businesses and communities are threatened by the recent decision.

"The truth of the matter is that rural populations are an intrinsic part of the environment - they have created the environment. They play a key role in maintaining the environment. And the diversity of wildlife and biodiversity that we enjoy exists not in spite of farming, but because of farming."

Mr Vaughan stressed that the environment relied upon farming families and the majority of farming families relied significantly on the Tir Mynydd scheme, one of five agri-environment schemes in Wales due to be replaced by one scheme called Glastir from 2012.

"These families may well be threatened unless the new Glastir scheme is carefully crafted in a way that ensures that it is not overly prescriptive or bureaucratic and, above all else, fills the gulf created by the abandonment of half a century of handicap payments.

"We also have major concerns about the practicality for the Assembly of implementing the Glastir scheme, and I sincerely hope that sufficient staff will be available to produce perhaps as many as sixteen thousand detailed farm maps and agreements, while undertaking as many as 65 private interviews with farmers every single working day during the transition period.

"As part of the stakeholder group that will help formulate the Glastir scheme, the union is of course committed to doing all it can to ensure that Glastir is as practical and beneficial as is possible.

"However, be in no doubt that the FUW, like thousands of farmers across Wales, has major concerns regarding the Glastir scheme and the impact it will have on our rural communities. I am duty bound to condemn the decision to abolish Tir Mynydd."

Mr Vaughan reminded delegates there was no animal disease in Wales more concerning than bovine TB which costs the industry and taxpayers millions of pounds each year, and causes untold stress and suffering for all concerned.

"Following years of lobbying by the FUW, the Welsh Assembly Government and members from all political parties have taken the decision to stand shoulder to shoulder on the issue of TB in badgers, and this sends out a clear lesson in maturity and honesty to those amongst our English neighbours who threaten to undermine the efficacy of future Welsh and UK TB control measures.

"For too many years politicians have buried uncomfortable truths about TB in wildlife, pandering to animal rights extremists who, through threats and misinformation, have managed to steer government policy away from what is in the best interests of human health and the taxpayer.

"In Wales, such attempts to corrupt the democratic process are more common than ever - for example, in one leaflet that has been widely distributed by Badger Watch and Rescue Dyfed, no less than eight out of ten so called ‘answers’ to commonly asked questions are either grossly misleading or plain untrue.

"Such campaigns are deliberately designed to mislead members of the general public into lobbying against a badger cull, and I therefore hope that the Assembly’s Rural Affairs Minister and her colleagues will stand up to such disgraceful campaigns of misinformation.

"Because what has been shown in Wales is that, by grasping the nettle, by refusing to allow animal rights extremists to divide and conquer, and by being honest with the general public about the role that badgers play in transmitting TB, ways forward can be found that will reduce incidences of disease in cattle and wildlife.

"I therefore, once again, congratulate the majority of National Assembly Members, the Welsh Assembly Government, and, in particular, the Minister for Rural Affairs for the courageous stance that has been taken on TB.

"That stance stands in stark contrast to the cowardly approach that has been adopted in England - an approach based on cowering in the face of intimidation from animal rights extremists and hiding behind one ridiculously decisive statement published in the Final Report of the Independent Science Group on TB that is an embarrassment to the scientific community, and is contradicted by scientific evidence from Great Britain and around the globe.

"The Defra approach not only shows a disregard for animal and human health, but also poses a wider risk of TB transmission from wildlife and the environment, as shown by the recent escalation of TB cases in humans and animals - and all in a world in which the vaccination of children against tuberculosis is no longer routine.

"I therefore, on behalf of our cross border farms, on behalf of farmers throughout the UK, and on behalf of the future health of our cattle, our wildlife, and our progeny, call on Defra to do the honourable thing with regard to TB, rather than risk dragging the whole of the UK down."

The Farmers' Union of Wales warned today that the closure of the only major milk bottling plant in Wales could result in a withdrawal of bulk tanker collections from many dairy farms in remote areas.

"Today’s closure by the receivers of Dairy Farmers of Britain’s Bridgend plant is a great shame for the industry," said Eifion Huws, chairman of the union’s milk and dairy produce committee.

"It gives us great cause for concern that milk collections from small farms in remote areas will be threatened. Even before today’s closure of the Bridgend plant many dairy farmers in West Wales were worried whether their milk would be picked up by tankers in future.

"I fear we could soon be left with the ridiculous situation of numerous farmers having to drive many miles to deliver their milk to processors and that milk then transported back for sale by retailers in the same localities.

"We are constantly being encouraged to cut down on food miles yet we are poised to increase food miles at a time when fuel costs are rising rapidly," added Mr Huws, who is also a victim of the DFB receivership as a member of the co-operative.

The Bridgend plant was closed with the loss of 279 jobs the day after receivers announced Milk Link Ltd had bought DFB’s cheese-producing creamery at Llandyrnog, Denbighshire, which employs 170.

A Welsh dairy farmers’ leader today demanded that banks must show the same goodwill as the Government showed them during the credit crunch following confirmation that the Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB) milk co-operative had gone into receivership.

"The Government showed goodwill to the banks by helping to bale them out. Now the banks must repay that goodwill and stand by the members and employees of DFB," said the Farmers’ Union of Wales milk committee chairman Eifion Huws.

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

"It also has 1,800 farmer members across Great Britain who supply over one billion litres to the food and drink industry who now stand to lose many thousands of pounds," said Mr Huws, an Anglesey dairy farmer and DFB member.

He added: "This is a sad day for DFB members, its staff and all its suppliers and it may stop other groups in the industry from setting up co-operative ventures which the Government is constantly encouraging us to do.

"It is estimated that the average DFB member will lose around £14,000 for their May and early June milk amounting to around £21m in total - in addition to an average farmer investment of around £25,000 which has already been lost.

"HSBC are understood to be the dominant banker for DFB members and I believe they should think very long and hard about how to help members by offering interest free loans, for example.

"After all, the loss of a much-needed milk cheque is a huge blow to all our cashflows. The question must now be put - how many more farmers can be expected to sustain such a big blow to their livelihoods?

"We wonder what will be the effect of the availability of all the extra milk for which DFB members will now be looking for a market," he added.