Wales Farmer 12 NEWS February 2013 Toy treats for youngsters with all the answers in competition
BIG WIN: Winner Evan Parry with Sister Kerry-Ann and their new farm.
TWO Welsh youngsters walked away with their own mini-farms as part of acompetition run by NFU Cymru. Eleven-year-old Sion Roberts, of St Asaph, won the national short- story competition about why he loves farming, set for eight to 12- year-olds; and five-year-old Evan Parry, of Llanrhystryd, won NFU Cymru’s ‘spot the Red Tractor’
competition for four to seven- year-olds. The competition, run in association with Britain’s Farm Toys, saw both win Britain’s Big Farm toy bundles. NFU Cymru president Ed Bailey, who headed the judging panel, said: “All of the entries this year have been absolutely brilliant and really impressive. The children
Whey to go for dairy
experts
THE future of Volac’s two sites in Wales looks assured after the dairy processing
company
announced strong results from increased exports and improved profits from
overseas operations. In the financial year ending
February 2012, the business achievedanoperating profit of £17.3m –up38% on previous year –and aturnoverof£162.4m, an increase of 34% year on year. The company, which published
its annual results last month, is simultaneouslygrowing and investing across Europe,stimulat- ing demand fornutritionallyvalu- able dairy products and using its technology and marketknowhow to addvalue across the dairy sup- plychain. Volac runs awhey processing
facility at Felinfach which handles morethan one thirdofthe UK’s liquid whey to produce added value whey and lactose-based ingredients. In addition, the companyhas extended its Port Talbot site
By Debbie James
where, in future, it will not only produce silage inoculants butalso establish packing facilities on a separatesite forits newsub- sidiary,The Good Whey Co,sup- plying high quality whey protein products to help maintain active lifestyles. During the last financial year, 2011-2012, Volac cites many achievements:
● Asignificant increase in profit from overseas operations in The Netherlands,Malaysia and China wasthe main contribution to Volac’simproved profit perform- ance;
● A38% increase in export sales revenue from UK manufacturing sites;
● The commencement of produc- tion at its Milk Link Volac Ingredients (MVI) joint ventureat the TawValley Creamery;
● An increase in employeenum- bers of 4% over the financial year;
●The involvement in anumber of dairy industry initiativestodevel- op asustainabledairy industry.
FAIR WIND: Pictured from left to right are: John Griffiths, HSBC agricultural manager Sarah Williams and Llinos Griffiths.
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walesfarmer.co.uk
EARLY CHRISTMAS: Ffion, Sion and Harri Roberts with Sion new farm and local NFU Cymru Group secretary Carys Roberts, who presented the prize.
have articulated perfectly what they love about farming and it was quite difficult to choose the winner of the eight to 12 year olds. “In his story Sion thanked the farmer for his food –itwas very touching to read. Evan guessed the correct number of red tractors in the picture as ten. Hopefully this was areally nice, early
Christmas treat for them both.” Sion’s mum, Gwen, said her son’s new toy farm would get some real good use by Sion and his twin siblings Harri and Ffion, who are all mad-keen about farming. Speaking from their dairy farm, Penuchaf Green, St Asaph, she said: “We are all delighted by Sion’s win and very proud of his
achievement, particularly as the competition covered the whole of Wales.
“Competitions such as this one run by NFU Cymru go along way in educating children about the importance of food and farming.” The competition was promoted through the NFU’s Let’s Talk Farming Roadshow at local shows, and on the internet.
Bank helpspowerfarm revival
ACARMARTHENSHIRE live- stock farmer has installed awind turbineonhis 100-acre farmto diversify income and reduce costs after securing funding from HSBC’s Wales Agricultureteam.
John Griffiths,who runs the
Ferryside farmwith his wife Llinos, said the wind turbine would makea ‘significant’ contribution to the farm’sincome.
The farm, YBwthyn, consists of
beef and prizesheep,has been in the Griffiths familyfor manygener- ations and John’s parents also own afarmadjacent to his.
In addition to farmwork, John is
the manager of the Resource Centreatthe Gelli Auragricultural college,while Llinos is ateaching assistant.
John Griffiths said: “Wewere
looking at ways of boosting the farm’sincome,diversifying the business and helping us reduce costs,sothe wind turbine wasthe natural conclusion.
“Weare pleased so far with how
it has gone although it will takea fewmonths beforewestart to see anybenefit from the feed-in tariff.”
John worked with his HSBC agricultural manager
Sarah
Williams,inCarmarthen, to secure the finance to fund the project.
Euryn Jones,HSBC’sregional
agriculturemanager forWales,said: “The Griffiths familyare typical of the manycustomers we arehelping with this kind of project at present.
“AtHSBC we believe thatrenew-
able energy projects will have an increasinglyimportant part to play in the futuresuccess of Welsh farming.
“Wehaveaproven track record
in financing such projects and look forwardtosupporting manymore farming customers in future.”
HSBC has seen astrong increase
in interest in renewableenergy,its agricultureteam in Wales providing morethan £5million forits farming customers during the first half of the year to fund wind turbines, hydroschemes and solar energy projects.
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