Montgomeryshire farmers are opening up their kitchens for you to join them for breakfast and who wouldn’t enjoy a freshly cooked breakfast at a farmhouse kitchen table?

As part of the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) breakfast campaign, three breakfasts will be held in the county - Monday January 22, at Pen Y Derw, Forden, Welshpool, Wednesday January 24, at Camnant, Dolfor, Newtown and on Friday January 26, at Plas Du, Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant, Nr Oswestry.

This breakfast campaign provides an opportunity to promote the quality premium local produce that farmers grow for us every day of the year and throughout breakfast week the FUW will shine a spotlight on the importance of our rural economy.

FUW Montgomeryshire County Executive Officer Emyr Wyn Davies said: “I would like to invite you all to join us for breakfast here in Montgomeryshire. There really is no better place for bonding people together and sharing ideas than over good food and that’s exactly what we intend to do with these breakfast functions.

“We want you to be a part of what we do, and share your thoughts and worries about the state of the industry, tell us your stories and help us to understand how we can help each other, so why not give us a call in the office and book your seat at our table?”

Those wishing to attend the breakfast functions need to contact the Newtown office on 01686 626889.

Sheep and goat keepers in Wales are being reminded to submit their annual inventory form by February 1, to avoid potential penalties.

The form can be submitted by either logging onto the EID Cymru website (www.eidcymru.org), or by returning the paper form in the pre-paid envelope.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has described comments by leading politicians on post Brexit agriculture made during the 2018 Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) as welcome, but says Welsh farmers remain in the dark over many important issues.

Speaking during the opening politics session at the event were Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove; US Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney; and Vice Chairman of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee Paolo De Castro.

FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “We very much welcome Mr Gove’s apparent commitment to agricultural funding until 2024, and the general thrust of his speech, which described a prosperous and forward looking post-Brexit industry which is rewarded for delivering the very best in terms of food, the environment and social contributions to society.

As we start 2018, despite all the uncertainty around Brexit, I feel there is cause for optimism - certainly more than there was twelve months ago.

Key messages put forward by the FUW in 2016 and 2017, which originally appeared to have been shunned or contradicted by the UK Government, are now being adopted; words like ‘transition’ have replaced the ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ type rhetoric, and most have now joined the FUW in recognising that a post-Brexit UK framework for agriculture, agreed in partnership between Governments, should protect, not undermine devolution and our devolved Nations. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, our call for a more proportionate and targeted approach to Nitrate Vulnerable Zones has been accepted.