Wales Farmer July 2012 NEWS Brian ploughs £4,000 into cancer charity


APEMBROKESHIRE farmer raised more than £4,000 for charity during aploughing marathon on his farm. Brian Thomas was due to hand over £4,000 to Farmers’ Union of Wales president Emyr Jones’ chosen charity, Cancer Research Wales, at the Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival. Mr Thomas, amember of the union’s finance and organisation committee, ploughed 12 acres on his farm in 12 hours using aclassic 50-year-old B275 International tractor and three-furrow plough. He originally hoped to


raise around £1,000 for the charity and was overwhelmed by donations from neighbours, family, friends, and local businesses and organisations. He said: “I would like to thank the FUW Pembrokeshire office staff for their support in organising the event. I am also very grateful to all those who helped and assisted me in raising money for the charity. “We started at 7am and ploughed through to 7pm. It all started off a bit drizzly and cold on the day but, thankfully, the weather improved. I


am truly amazed at the generosity of people and the money is still coming in for this worthy cause.” On the same day Mr Thomas hosted a ploughing match at Llwyncelyn Lan Farm, Llanfyrnach.“It was also great to host avintage ploughing match for the Llangolman Ploughing Society on the farm again,” he said. “The last ploughing match here on the farm took place in 1924. The match was the 24th event to be held by the society in


Pembrokeshire and saw farmers go head-to- head ploughing 40 plots.”


Going global to improve meat


AMEMBER of the Welsh red meat industry is heading across the Atlantic in abid to learn more about the carcase grading systems in the USA.


Alison Jones,who worksfor Dunbia at its


Llanybydder abattoir,will be travelling to the USA and France to discoverwhatmethods they use forgrading livestock carcases. Alison and Pontypriddsheep farmer Gwyn


Johnson have been selected as the 2012 Hybu Cig Cymru livestock scholars whowill travel abroad in search of different methods and techniques thatare used in the redmeatindus- try around the worldthatcould be adapted to benefit the industry in Wales. Alison will travel across the English Channel to see what developments have been made to the French system forgrading car-


cases over the past fewyears beforeheading out to America to see the various methods thatare used in the United States fortheir dif- ferent markets. She said: “I feel thereare improvements to


be considered in the carcase grading of ani- mals and the Welsh industry could benefit from looking at the different methods used in countries such as France and America. “This could better informfarmers about


the stock they areproducing and further improveconsistency of products going through Welsh abattoirs,which would help to maximise efficiency forboth the produc- tion and processing sector.” Meanwhile,Gwyn Johnson will be travel-


ling to the other end of the worldtoinvesti- gate the growing issue of resistance to anthelmintics. He will be visiting farms in NewZealand


Fellowship honour for former ADAShead


ONE of the best-known fig- ures in agricultureinWales, A. J. B. (Bill) Ratcliffe,of Narberth, Pembrokeshire, has been directlyelected a fellowofthe Royal Agricultural Societies forhis outstanding contribution to the farming industry. Mr Ratcliffe began his


career in the National Agricultural


Advisory


Service in Staffordshire. He waspromoted to sen-


ior agricultural adviser and movedtoCarmarthenshire in 1956, remaining in the country eversince and even- tuallybecoming head of the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service in Wales. While in Carmarthenshire


he developed group advisory methods,established a monthlytechnical journal and advised on land restora- tion following opencast min- ing operations in the county.


county


He wasappointed deputy adviser


for


Glamorgan in 1960, county adviser forPembrokeshirein 1965 and with the formation of ADAS in 1971 he became divisional officer forDyfed, managing all the ADAS services in thatcounty. In 1976 he movedto Aberystwyth to become regional technical develop- ment adviser forWales and wassubsequentlyappointed deputy regional agricultural adviser Wales. In 1980 he wasappointed


head of ADAS Wales and became the keylink between the service and the Welsh Office,advising ministers on technical agricultural issues. He wasinvolved in estab-


lishing the Food Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FFWAG)and Coed Cymru beforeretiring from ADAS in 1983. In 1980 he joined the


boardofmanagement of the RoyalWelsh Agricultural Society and has been an active participant in the affairs of the RWAS serving on


severalexecutive


committees. He is chairman of RWAS Enterprises Ltd, which was set up as the commercial armofthe society,and is also assistant honorary director forspecial guests at the RoyalWelsh Show. In thatrole,hewelcomes important visitors to the event from the UK and overseas. In 1989 he wasawarded


the OBE forservices to agri- cultureand in 2005 received the RWAS silver medal in recognition of his contribu- tion to the society and the RoyalWelsh Show. In the same year he was


made afellowofhis old col- lege,Harper University.


Adams Contactusfor more details:


Tel: 01269 826680 Fforch -EgelFarm, GwrhydRoad,Rhiwfawr,Swansea, SA92SE•Fax: 01269 826646•Email: bfpc@btconnect.com Website:www.birchfarmplastics.co.uk


For the latest Wales farming news: walesfarmer.co.uk


to see first-hand howthey arecoping with internal parasites and what is being done to combatresistance to drugs. Mr Johnson said: “Resistance is already


causing problems forfarmers in NewZealand and is becoming areal issue forsheep farmers hereinWales.”


LIVESTOCK SCHOLARS: Alison Jones and Gwyn Johnson.


Anew opportunity for


your wastesilage film!! In additiontoBPI’s recyclingsitein Scotland, theWales siteisnow openingat Rhymney, SouthWales,


Farmersgroups, wastetransfer sites,landfill sites-would youliketowork together with us to increase theamountofwaste silagefilm


available forrecyclinginthe UK andbeapart of ourcurrent UK wide team?


13


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36