Changing times

With the threatening impact of Brexit on the horizon, many local dairy farmers fear that there may be an increasing shortage of vitally required foreign labour.

Herds have to get larger to justify increased expenditure on installing and maintaining milking high quality equipment and many younger workers do not relish spending several hours in the milking parlour seven days each week.

New thinking puts aside employing relief or weekend milkers and, although robotic systems would seem to be an answer, such systems are supposedly limited to just 70 cows and multiples.

Mindful of these limitations increasing though is being given to changing over to once a day milking - a number of herds in Pembrokeshire having already adapted to this method.

There is currently a wave of interest in this procedure across Ireland and technology dairy advisor, Brian Hilliard - on a visit to this county claimed: “We are getting a lot of calls from throughout the country on the subject. A lot of farmers would like to go at it, but are afraid to take the plunge.”

Dungarvan based Brian, who is also facilitator of the country-wide OAD (once a day) discussion groups tells me: “There are a whole lot of reasons for the interest, including less requirement for labour, enhanced lifestyle, and land fragmentation.

“There is a gradual move towards OAD milking, with an estimated number of approximately 50 farmers throughout the country currently undertaking it for the entire lactation period.

“It is a big change both for the cows and the farmer - with major benefits for both. The significant changes for the farmer are that it frees up a lot of time and cuts back on the need for labour. However, something to be borne in mind is that milk yields will be hit for the first year, so there will be a financial loss. Cell counts can be an issue if you are not on top of things,” said Brian.

He considers that making the changeover can be daunting, and his advice is to speak with good OAD farmers with a number of years of experience, before going ahead. “Your farm management has to be every bit as good - and better - with OAD. You still need to have good grassland management and good control of cell count. The cows need to be managed every bit as well,” he said adding: “The shortage of good workers in the dairy sector is unlikely to improve at a time when there is an economic upturn. OAD milking is one solution, and anyone doing a reasonably good job with it would not go back to twice-a-day (TAD) milking.”

An enthusiastic proponent of OAD milking is Gillian O’Sullivan, who runs a 100 per cent dairy enterprise with her husband, Neil, and her father, Michael.

Gillian says: “Our farm is fragmented, with the milking platform about three miles away from the home farm where the replacements are reared. The milking platform is about 100 acres and we will be milking 115 crossbreds there next spring.”

Gillian and her husband, both vets, relocated from Dublin in 2010, learning the ropes of dairying and continuing with OAD milking.

“This year, we milked 100 cows on our ninth season OAD and expect to produce approximately 390kg of milk solids per cow -averaging 5.21 per cent fat and 4.07 protein. After the initial drop in production, we have improved by breeding only from cows suited to OAD.”

Many young farmers are interested in having a good work-life balance. This of course can be achieved on large-scale farms that employ people, but what about the one-person unit? Can average size herds have the same balance?

“OAD farmers in Ireland are already enjoying the benefits of a better work-life balance on their farms,” insisted Gillian.

Faithful servant

I learned with great sadness over Christmas of the death of Tom Owen-Thomas Howard Owen to give him his full title.

Small of stature, Tom came from very humble beginnings but began life in the 1920s after his school years as a farm labourer in the Llanfallteg area.

Even for big lads the work was very demanding, but he stuck at it keeping up with many well experienced and much stronger men.

A man of commendably deep faith, one day it just clicked, this was not his true purpose in life and he decided to act upon his inner commitment to become a chapel minister.

Dedication and determination won through after the necessary funding was obtained and he was accepted into the congregational ministry firstly in Monmouthshire before accepting a call to a large pastorate in Wiltshire.

Here he became a proud husband to Val and a devoted father of Sharon and Eryl before the urge to return to Wales became too great and he was welcomed as the pastor of Wolfsdale and Crundale churches in 1964.

Not very long after this, one of the most historic measures in the history of the Christian churches in the UK came about as the United Reformed Church resulted from the union of the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales. Tom thus became one of the first ministers of the URC and his full commitment to the new order was never in doubt.

During his ministry, he served his members well, ably supported at all times by his wife and daughters. He also had a passion for breeding Welsh mountain ponies, a love he shared with his daughters.

Although his time was always limitedm he gave freely of what spare time he had to working with the Pembroke County and Withybush Hospitals League of Friends serving as a very able chairman of the charity for many, many years.

This was in general fundraising by way of the monthly car boot sale, the sale of Christmas cards, raffles and draws, organising collection boxes, the sales of books and the handling of many legacies and donations.

Of Tom it might be said: “You realise what is important and what isn’t. You learn to care less about what other people think of you and more of what you think of yourself. You realise how far you’ve come and you remember when you thought things were such a mess that they’d never recover.. and then you smile. You smile because you are truly proud of yourself and the person you’ve fought to become.”

Plan now for 2019!

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show will mark its centenary in 2019 when Pembrokeshire will be the featured county.

The first show at Aberystwyth attracted 442 livestock entries. Four years later, in 1908, 23 special trains comprising 224 cattle trucks and horseboxes arrived at Aberystwyth, together with 100 passenger coaches ferrying visitors from far and wide to the show.

Nowadays, livestock entries number around 8,000 and 20,000 cars a day, plus hundreds of stock lorries and trailers, converge on the showground.

As long as most people can remember, the Royal Welsh Show has, each year, a different host or feature county who, in turn, engage in fund raising and this somewhat unique system is the envy of many other less successful national events.

Being a ‘featured county’ has its origins in the early history of the show, when its location changed year on year moving around the 13 old counties in Wales

Since the move in 1964 to the permanent site at Builth Wells, each featured county has, in turn, organised a variety of events, big and small, in order to raise funds to support the development of Llanelwedd and promote the Society, its work and all the goings on threre.

Over the years, some of the society’s most notable improvements have been raised by hardworking county committees, not least from Pembrokeshire who installed the main gates to the showground - known as the Gibby gates, the main part of the extensive grandstand and the Pembrokeshire tower overlooking the main ring which is a ‘state-of-the-art’ hub for each year’s main show.

The success of the Royal Welsh Show has spawned two other great events - the Winter Fair which was founded in 1990, and the Spring Festival which made its debut on the showground in 2003 - both have grown rapidly in stature and importance and are among the most popular attractions in Wales. In addition, some 400 events of various kinds now take place on the showground each year

The official launch of the 2019 fundraising campaign -headed by Meurig Raymond, NFU president, and Brian Harries, County Show president-elect - will take place over a four-course carvery lunch at the Pembrokeshire Showground on Sunday, February 18 (11.30am for 12 noon) with guest entertainer, Jessica Robinson.

Tickets, £30, are obtainable from secretary, Geraint James (0779 2162371).

No brainer

A seven-year-old boy was at the centre of a courtroom drama last weekend when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him.

The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with the child custody law and regulations requiring that family unity be maintained to the degree possible.

The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried out that they also beat him.

After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him.

After two recesses to check legal references and confer with child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the England cricket team, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.