The Farmers' Union of Wales Gwent and Glamorgan branches have made a donation of well over £1,000 to a Cardiff cancer hospital.

A cheque for £1,120 was presented to Velindre Cancer Centre head of fundraising Andrew Morris at a recent coffee morning following the success of a wooden horse charity race night hosted by FUW vice president Lorraine Howells at Cwm Carno Farm, near Tredegar, in September last year.

"We received such fantastic support from FUW members, as well as members of the community, in raising over £4,000 and we decided to present part of the total amount to a hugely worthwhile and local cause," said Miss Howells.

"We would like to thank all those people involved with organising the evening including local members and businesses that donated food and provided sponsorship.

“The evening would not have worked as well without the tremendous support of Joyce Matthews and Cheryl Evans who prepared the supper meals."

[caption id="attachment_2341" align="aligncenter" width="640"] From left, FUW Glamorgan county executive officer Rachel Saunders, Andrew Morris, Lorraine Howells, FUW Glamorgan administrative assistant Christine Anstee and FUW Glamorgan county president John Llewellyn[/caption]

The Farmers' Union of Wales today backed the National Sheep Association's (NSA) call for the immediate removal of images of a lamb chop placed in the bottom of a urinal shown in a new Food Standards Agency awareness campaign.

"The campaign encourages consumers to look for the food hygiene rating of restaurants and food outlets but, like the NSA, we are appalled that lamb has been singled out to portray such a negative and extreme message," said FUW president Emyr Jones.

“It is plain idiocy that the repercussions of such an advertisement were not spotted by the FSA. It’s little wonder that criminals were able to pass off horse meat as beef under the FSA’s noses if they were too busy dreaming up inflammatory and misleading messages like this.”

The union has contacted the FSA demanding that they remove the images from all public places with immediate effect.

“If premises have standards of hygiene which are akin to food being served in urinals then the FSA should deal with them,” added Mr Jones.

“Launching a publically-funded campaign like this and associating a top quality product with standards of hygiene which should result in premises being closed down is absolute madness and a disgrace.”

The problem of fence posts rotting was the subject of the Farmers' Union of Wales Brecon and Radnor county branch annual general meetings.

The issue, which has been constantly highlighted by members over recent years, is a costly and time consuming issue for most farmers and the guest speakers were Ian Smith, of Postsaver Europe Ltd, and Eifion Price from Llandre Sawn Wood Ltd based at Hundred House, Llandrindod Wells.

Mr Price said: “Many farmers and landowners are unaware of the growing problem of premature fence failure associated with the ban on traditional copper, chrome and arsenic preservatives in favour of more environment-friendly options following the EU wide ban of CCA preservatives in 2004.

"These ‘greener’ preservatives are far less effective and mean perfectly good fences are being scrapped because timber posts have rotted through at ground level within a few years.”

Mr Price added that preservatives were improving with time since the ban in 2004. He explained that stakes need to be dried to the correct moisture content before being tanalised - white wood to 28 per cent and red wood to 38 per cent - to allow the tanalising to penetrate further into the stake.

Llandre Sawn Wood are currently upgrading their drying plant with a biomass generator using their own waste. The tanalising process is also remotely operated by the preservative suppliers to ensure the correct amount of chemical is in the posts.

Mr Smith said: “Our product was designed to protect the most vulnerable part of a fence post from rotting organisms. Postsaver is a tough, double layer polythene and bituminous sleeve developed by brothers Richard and Jim George in response to changes in EU preservative legislation.”

Savvy entrepreneurs Richard and Jim George, who spurned a £160,000 deal on the Dragons’ Den TV series, have seen sales of their anti-rot fencing post sleeves soar by 75 per cent. The brothers, from Malvern, Worcestershire, stunned the panel of multi-millionaires on the hit BBC 2 programme when they declined four offers for a stake in their Gloucestershire-based business.

Mr Smith said: “Postsaver’s patented dual layer composite sleeves simply slide over fence posts and are easily shrunk onto the ground line section with a blow torch. They work by keeping preservatives in and the causes of decay away from the vulnerable part of the post thus dramatically extending lifespan and give substantial long term cost savings.

“They have been in production for 20 years and we’ve sold millions of them all over the world. Add to this 12 years of independent field tests without any material signs of decay and AWPA (American Wood Preservers Association) approval proving that Postsaver really will dramatically extend the life of your posts saving you time and money over the dramatically extended lifespan of your posts.

“Postsaver now has a working relationship with Llandre Sawn Wood to supply posts with the sleeves already applied.  We were very impressed with Llandre’s professional approach to timber treatment and the fact that they are putting the sleeves onto the post for virtually the same price as the sleeve itself.”

Members asked about the cost of the Postsaver sleeves and Mr Price explained they added around 90 pence to a 3-4 inch post but given the extra life-span of the post and the cost of erecting a fence then it could be argued it is a very cost-effective solution.

FUW Brecon and Radnor county executive officer Aled Jones said: "Both meetings were very informative and gave members a great deal of information on the problem and possible solutions.

“Postsaver and Llandre are happy to attend similar meetings with farmers in other Welsh counties. Ian Smith, of Postsaver, can be contacted on 0791 747 5366 and Llandre on 01982 570 329."

[caption id="attachment_2336" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Members and staff of FUW Brecon and Radnor branches with guest speakers Ian Smith, of Postsaver Ltd, and Gary and Eifion Price from Llandre Sawn Wood[/caption]

The Farmers' Union of Wales today congratulated Alun Davies on his appointment as Welsh Government natural resources and food minister and welcomed the merger of his previous responsibilities for agriculture, fisheries and food with those of the former environment minister under a single portfolio.

"We have had major concerns regarding the splitting of the previous rural affairs department since Mr Davies was appointed deputy minister nearly two years ago," said FUW president Emyr Jones.

"Since then the union has tried to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt despite those concerns regarding the impact of dividing key agricultural issues between ministerial portfolios.

"Major changes were needed to ensure agricultural issues are dealt with in a more coordinated manner, particularly when policies impact upon agriculture and the environment and the interdependence between these issues continues to be a key topic in negotiations over the future of the Common Agricultural Policy.

"We wish Mr Davies all the best in his new role as Minister and hope to be discussing those issues of concern to our members at a meeting in the near future."