The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) has welcomed commitments by Secretary of State Michael Gove to focus on supply chain policies and his acknowledgement of the need for an appropriate balance between devolution and common UK frameworks post Brexit.

Speaking at a National Farmers Union conference in Birmingham, Michael Gove gave a number of commitments to English farmers, while also acknowledging the need for Brexit to be considered in terms of entire supply chains which operate across the UK.

Responding, FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “In light of Brexit, there is an understandable focus on farming, environmental and land use policies, but the FUW has been arguing for entire supply chains to be considered - be it the supply chain for food, carbon, green energy or wildlife.

A sheep and cattle farming family from Brecon have highlighted the important role that the average family farm, including tenant farmers, play in producing food and looking after the environment, during a farm visit with Minister for Environment Hannah Blythyn.

Opening the gates to their 270 acre tenanted farm, Talwen Fawr, were Darren and Rachel Williams, who run 500 ewes, 100 ewe lambs and 100 cattle.

The farm is a mixed farm and they grow their own corn for feeding and aim to fatten their lambs from forage crops, grass and red clover leys.  The farm is also in the Glastir Advanced scheme.

Highlighting the environmental work being done on the farm but also stressing the limitations imposed by its size and nature, Darren said: “Wales’s upland farms come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but many people run away with the idea they all have vast areas of moorland and mountain.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has warned that conservation bodies have their heads in the sand over the devastating impact badgers have had on hedgehog numbers, and are doing conservation a great disservice by scapegoating farmers.

The State of British Hedgehogs 2018 report released today (7 February) by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species estimates that hedgehog numbers have halved since the beginning of the century, and places the lion’s share of the blame on intensive farming.

However, world leading hedgehog expert Dr Pat Morris, author of The New Hedgehog Book, wrote in his 2006 book “The implications [of high badger population densities] for hedgehog survival are serious...ignoring the issue or pretending that badgers exist only by harmless drinking of rainwater doesn't help at all."

By Angharad Evans, Welsh Editor

Recently, I had to turn to the traditional way of searching through the old phone book which is now idle thanks to more convenient and fast ways of searching for something.  As I turned the pages to the appropriate letter, I stopped for a moment and realised that all types of surnames, the weird and wonderful exist.

Looking back at history, the old Welsh style was to use the father's baptism name as a surname, with the family's surname changing from generation to generation. For example, Iolo Griffith would be the son of Griffith William, and he was the son of William Dafydd, and would be written as Iolo ap Griffith ap William ap Dafydd! Quite a mouthful! Women would use the same procedure sometimes using 'ferch' instead of ‘ap’. They also kept their maiden names after getting married because surnames did not exsist.