Farmers from Ceredigion have raised their concerns around bovine TB and current tree planting targets with local Member of the Senedd, Elin Jones. Hosting the meeting was Farmers’ Union of Wales Ceredigion County Chairman Morys Ioan, who farms with his wife Helen, at Fferm Drefach, Cross Inn, Llandysul. 

The farm has been in the family for over 150 years and Morys is the 5th generation to farm Drefach. Morys and Helen own 24 acres and rent a further 244 acres. They keep 200 sheep and also rear 450 beef calves from dairy herds as stores and finishing cattle. 

Morys has recently come home to run the family farm and a lot of improvements have been made to the land including the planting of 4,000 hedging plants through the Glastir Small Grants scheme. Work has also begun on an approved calf rearing unit on which the farm business will be focusing on for the next 5 years. Working with local dairy farms, Morys is currently working on a way to accommodate the bovine TB situation as part of the business.  

Farmers’ Union of Wales members from Carmarthenshire and Union officials recently discussed critical climate change issues facing the agricultural industry with Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters MS.

Union officials acknowledged that given the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the role played by soils and plants in sequestering carbon is attracting significant attention, with a particular focus by the Welsh Government on planting trees.

FUW Carmarthen County Chairman Phil Jones said: “The FUW supports the overall aims of the Welsh Government with regards to environmental issues but we are concerned that a number of recent policy proposals to increase tree planting targets from 2000 hectares per year to 5000 ha/pa could see agricultural funding being diverted towards forestry and woodland with a lack of clarity on the consequences for Wales’ family farms and rural communities.”

Primary school pupils from all over Wales are being invited to enter a Christmas card design themed around farming for the FUW’s Christmas card competition.

The FUW is asking children aged from four to 11 to design a Christmas farming scene for its Christmas cards, which will be sold to raise money for the Union’s charity The DPJ Foundation.

FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “The competition will be split into Welsh language and English language categories. Children can use any media in their entries, such as crayons, coloured pencils, felt tipped pens or paint which must be completed on an A4 sheet of paper and emailed to us in jpeg format.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales is reminding rural communities to stand side by side with those suffering from poor health and reach out to loved ones, ahead of World Suicide Prevention day (Friday 10 September). 

World Suicide Prevention Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of suicide and to promote action that will reduce the number of suicides and suicide attempts globally.

The International Association for Suicide Preventation has highlighted that one in every 100 deaths worldwide is the result of suicide and The World Health Organisation estimates that one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds. The latest available statistics from the Samaritans (2019) highlight that in England and Wales there were 5,691 suicides, an increase of 321 on the previous year. The suicide rate for females under the age of 25 has increased by 93.8% since 2012, its highest level yet.