Fair price needed

If the call is repeated often enough, surely someone, somewhere will take notice. Speaking recently at the annual general meeting of the Royal Welsh Society at Pembroke Dock, Alun Evans, chairman, voiced a further plea that farmers should be paid a fair price for their products in order to safeguard future home food supplies. On a topical note, he reminded: "This year, an area the size of Britain will, across the world, switch to growing crops for bio fuels - an area that will further rapidly increase over the next few years as farmers look for better returns from their land. Less food produced and the world population increasing by billions who need to be fed is a situation which spells disaster," he said. Members from all over Wales who attended the meeting were afterwards taken by this year's president, Mr. Edward Perkins, on a tour of the Castlemartin peninsula seeing something of its diverse farming heritage. Edward remarked afterwards: "Travelling through the county, one could not fail but to be impressed by the appearance of the countryside. How different it would be, however, without the farmers who lived and worked in it every day to maintain the pattern of farming and care for the heritage. "People at large value what they saw in the countryside, but do not fully appreciate the value of the fundamental products that underpinned it - the food produced from the land. "Sadly, society is locked into thinking that food should be cheap and that it could come from anywhere in the world, but the effect of this would be to endanger home food production."

FRAgS

We applaud two south Pembrokeshire farmers whose work within the industry has let them to becoming fellows of the UK's Royal Agricultural Societies. Richard Francis, of Cosheston, diversified his dairy farming business by adding value through the establishment in 1985 of a manufacturing plant for dairy ice cream. The business now has 10 full-time employees and a further eight seasonal workers and Upton Farmhouse Ice Cream and other frozen food products is a thriving brand. Secondly, Harold James, of Stackpole and Clarbeston, is rewarded for his contribution in the field of agricultural cooperation being for many years an elected member serving South Wales on the Milk Marketing Board. Later, he was to become chairman of Clynderwen and Cardiganshire Farmers Co-op and he is a former chairman of the Pembroke County branch of the National Farmers Union. He is also a former High Sheriff of Dyfed.

Some good news

New Government regulations are about to come into force which will open up the market for biofuel production in the UK. At present, the law requires anyone producing any quantity of biodiesel in the UK to pay duty of 28.35p on every litre they produce, as well as submit returns to HM Revenue and Customs and hold a permit. For a current non-producer, the duty they pay at retail pumps is 48.35p making the saving to them even greater. Introduced from tomorrow (June 30) is a production threshold of 2,500 litres per annum below which producers will not need to submit returns or pay duty. At the present time, there are approximately 1,400 producers of biofuels in the UK, a large proportion of whom produce for their own personal use. This landmark change in regulation means that everyone will have the opportunity to produce enough biofuel for their own personal consumption, duty free. Richard Price, of MD Filtertechnik, a supplier to the biodiesel market - one of the fastest growing markets in Europe today - told me: "I anticipate this will lead to an explosion of biofuels producers who will create a new 'homebrew' market. It is a very exciting time to be in the biofuels business."

Change

Calls by new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, last weekend for 'change at all levels of Government' have already gone down like a lead balloon for many in farming. "What we want is not change, but for the officers and bureaucrats, with whom we have to deal, to do what they have to do much better and more efficiently," was a general comment.

Friend

This column sadly records the death of someone who, over his lifetime, did so much to encourage young entrants into the dairy industry. From his days as an active member of Haverfordwest Young Farmers Club, Bill Davies, of Uzmaston, went on to become a club leader and trained so many in stockjudging and the merit points to look for in breeding top quality dairy animals. Farming in partnership with his late wife, Mair, he became an active breeder, exhibitor and judge and judge of British Friesian cattle and their 'Harfat' herd gained wide recognition over very many years. He was a former chairman and president of the South Wales British Friesian Club, he was a keen sheepdog breeder, trainer and trials competitor and was the only person to be twice president of the Pembrokeshire Show, but he never forgot the friends whom he had made along the way.

Legacy!

A quote from last week's Farmer's Journal states: "The sooner Tony Blair leaves office the better as far as the agricultural industry is concerned. "The past decade (during which he has been at No. 10) has seen the worse decline in farming for almost 80 years with confidence at an all-time low and incomes falling by the day". Out fit

I learn that a prominent south county farmer, as a result of his recent weight loss, has had to clear his wardrobe of the clothes that no longer fit him. When he turned up at the local pub, after being absent for several weeks, he supposedly said: "The local charity shops have been inundated with large clothes because as soon as something is too big, I get rid of it. The first thing William the Conquerer did was to burn his boats so there was no going back and this is exactly the philosophy I am taking!"

Seasonal

A friend last week took a trip down to your local 'Pick Your Own' last week and found hordes of people knee deep in strawberries, picking and gorging and generally acting as though the strawberry is due for imminent extinction. The raspberry bushes had their fair share of visitors too, as did the blackcurrants. But, looking over to the gooseberry bushes, she could have been forgiven for thinking that that part of the site must be closed. Now, it's fair to say that the gooseberry is not quite as accessible a fruit as its red berry friends. The bush has thorns big enough to be confiscated by airport security, the most common variety has a disturbingly hairy skin but get past these small drawbacks and you'll find one of the loveliest berries on our little island. If you're going to eat them raw then you really need to be picking berries that are soft to the touch, otherwise you're into bulldog chewing wasp territory, but harder berries are still great for cooking. I'm told that the top tip is to make a classic gooseberry fool but even if you have no intention of eating them at all, perhaps you'd be kind enough, next time you find yourself at a PYO, just to wander over and spend some time amongst the gooseberries, making it look like you do!

Anticipation

I'm given to understand that McDonalds restaurants are promising a major announcement of particular interest to arable farmers and the biofuels market at next week's Royal Show. An insider assures me that this will be one of the biggest and best stories from the Royal for years!

Alternatives

Visitors to Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, on Wednesday, learned of the latest advances of improving soil fertility being explored at the Connect Grassland Development Centre. A very interesting afternoon featured growing crops like lupins and red clover for fertility building and highlighted some of the ongoing work in the more practical aspects of growing, managing and using these crops. "It is important that growing legumes like clovers or lupins is planned in order that they fit into the farming system so farmers can take full advantage of all their benefits both to the soil and to livestock," suggested Heather McCalman. Mindful of preventing water pollution on livestock farms of specific interest were the results of the livestock bedding project. "It's important that farmers consider how woodchip bedding is utilised afterwards as it needs thorough composting before applying to the soil. Our demonstration plots gave farmers an opportunity to assess the effect of different woodchip and straw composts on subsequent Spring barley crops," commented Rhun Fychan.