Farmers have been invited to visit the newly-opened British Polythene Industries (BPI) multi-million pound investment recycling facility in Glamorganshire on Tuesday August 28 at 10.30am.

BPI, who officially opened the plant in March this year, has invested substantially in the state-of-the-art, waste wash plant at its Rhymney factory and Birch Farm Plastic collection have invited FUW members to visit the factory.

"This is an excellent opportunity for our members to view the recycling process first hand and see how the new plant will be used to recycle waste such as used agricultural plastics into products like refuse sacks, sheep feeders, stiles and gates," said FUW Glamorganshire county executive officer Rachel Taylor.

Birch Farm Plastic Collection is a family run business specialising in collecting plastic waste from farms for recycling. Along with the collection from farms, they have collection sites where farmers can take along their waste for a fee.

The collection site operators sort and bale the polythene and arrange the transport to deliver the material in to BPI.

"Many farmers struggle to dispose of plastic from items such as silage wrap, feed bags, fertiliser bags and polytunnels. Visiting this plant will show them an effective, environmentally friendly way of solving this problem," added Miss Taylor.

For more information contact Rachel Taylor on 01446 774838.

[caption id="attachment_3879" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Signing the Commitment for Change, FUW vice president Brian Walters with FUW deputy president Glyn Roberts, FUW president Emyr Jones and Dairy Farmers’ Together supporter Ian Smith.[/caption]

Farmers' Union of Wales members and officials joined dairy farmers from across the UK at a rally in Scotland yesterday to support the concept of a Dairy Farmers' Together umbrella group.

The proposed united UK dairy farmers' association, which will allow collaboration and communication between producer groups, was one of the key elements put forward at the rally in Lanark.

The Dairy Farmers' Together association would use partners within the UK to develop collaboration between individual dairy farmers and groups of producers in a bid to achieve a fair milk price and improve the effectiveness of existing producer representative bodies.

Dairy Farmers' Together would be open to all producers whether co-operatives, producer organisations, aligned or non-aligned.

Following the rally a large number of milk producers, including FUW's milk and dairy produce committee chairman Dei Davies and vice president Brian Walters, signed a Commitment for Change form to demonstrate their support for the association.

Mr Davies said: "Processors and retailers have now been challenged and it is time that they recognised that the producer is the backbone of the dairy supply chain.

"It is time the producer received their fair share.

"The concept of Dairy Farmers' Together represents a united industry voice and, in large numbers, the tools represented by this association would be useful and give real power in negotiations," added Mr Davies.

"Dairy Farmers Together should produce a sense of solidarity that will help underpin milk price."

NFU Scotland milk committee vice chairman Rory Christie said the new association will empower the individual to send a collective message to improve price negotiations because critical mass is power.

"Although this is not a quick fix, Dairy Farmers' Together aims to create useable tools to reduce the current unfairness in the dairy supply chain.

"The association would bring the best minds in the UK together to work as a collaborative high level group to provide solutions to improve the prosperity of the UK dairy sector," added Mr Christie.

The Scottish Government have committed £100,000 to aid the development of the association and the FUW will be writing to deputy agriculture minister Alun Davies asking that Wales makes the same commitment.

[caption id="attachment_3876" align="aligncenter" width="500"] PLAQUE UNVEILING: Lord Morris and Emyr Jones during the official opening[/caption]

Former Secretary of State for Wales Lord Morris of Aberavon has expressed serious concerns for the survival of the UK dairy industry.

Opening the Farmers' Union of Wales's iconic new pavilion at the Royal Welsh Showground, the union's first deputy general secretary and legal adviser, said the dairy industry is "withering on the vine" because it is operating on an unfair playing field.

"There is something completely wrong when a pint of milk is about 50p and a pint of water 83p!" he said.

"The major supermarkets hold the industry in their grip but some firms have been less fair than others - to their discredit.

"Do they really want, in their own interests, the dairy industry to die?

"When I was a young man working for farmers there were 6,000 registered milk producers in Carmarthenshire alone.

"I doubt whether there are 3,000 in the whole of Wales now.

"The Westminster minister of agriculture is trying to agree a voluntary code of practice with the dairy and retail industries and to work with them to ensure stability in the market.

"In a deregulatory age this is the only offer on the table and I wish the minister well - time is not on his side for it to succeed.

"The whole supply chain needs repair, perhaps more robustly."

Lord Morris welcomed eminent agriculturalist Lord Plumb's recent support in the House of Lords of a Groceries Code Adjudicator (Ombudsman) to ensure fairness in the market place.

"The only argument was what powers he should have.

"It reminds me of the time when there was a process of arbitration involving the Milk Marketing Board, the industry and the retailers. It is a welcome step forward." 

Dealing with another topical issue, Lord Morris said the dairy herd must be kept in good health and he welcomed "positive steps" being taken at last in England to deal with badger culling.

"The former Welsh agriculture minister Elin Jones is to be commended for her brave and pioneering fight (to introduce a badger cull in Wales). It was the process that let her down.

"I hope Wales will watch closely at what is happening in England.

"A reduction in tuberculosis would bring a welcome relief to both the industry and the taxpayer."

FUW president Emyr Jones said it was an easy decision for the union's presidential team to choose Lord Morris to open the pavilion.

"In his recently-published autobiography he reminds us of the difficult times the union faced in its formative years.

"In chapter three he recalls the time when he came home for Christmas in 1955 and 'all hell had broken loose in the farming community in Carmarthen and Ceredigion'.

"A small minority of farmers had broken away from the NFU and formed the FUW.

"People said at the time that this union would not last more than three months but this building is proof that we are here to stay.

"It is very important for everybody connected to the industry to work together to make sure that we have a strong and prosperous farming industry in Wales.

"Please don't play politics with the future of the industry in Wales."

With August 1 rapidly approaching all milk processors must follow the example set by others and reverse decisions to reduce farmgate milk prices - or face the anger of the farming industry, the Farmers' Union of Wales said today.

Today global dairy company Arla Foods joined First Milk and Dairy Crest who had earlier this week done a U-turn by withdrawing plans to reduce the milk price it pays to farmers in its liquid and balancing pools from next Wednesday (August 1).

FUW dairy and milk produce committee chairman, Holywell dairy farmer Dei Davies, welcomed the decision but warned that others must now follow suit or face the wrath of the industry.

Following a meeting for FUW dairy producers at the Royal Welsh Show on Thursday, Mr Davies said: "Dairy farmers have their backs to the wall and are facing further increases in input costs as the summer goes on.

"We desperately need a long term solution, but in the short term all processors need to undo the damage done over recent weeks and months.

"This has been made clear during meetings with numerous processors, politicians and other farming organisations over the past weeks, and we will continue to make this clear at a number of further meetings arranged for the coming weeks."