We have an exciting new opportunity for an individual to join our Ceredigion office as County Executive Officer and Agri-Environment Advisor. 
 
This opportunity will see the successful candidate providing support for their local farming community. We live by the view that ‘Farming Matters’ which the successful candidate would need to mirror.

Location: Lampeter
Salary: £30,500
Hours: 35 Hours (Mon-Fri 9-5, with some flexibility)

 
The Role
The successful candidate will provide services to members of the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW). You will be required to keep up to date on current and potential Welsh Government Schemes available for farmers, support with completion of grant applications for members of FUW. The role will also involve the delivery of on-farm advice to our members. You will be supported in this role by a local team of support staff and the head office team. You will also work closely with our agricultural policy team as well as the other county offices based throughout Wales.
 
This role will require you to be responsible for ensuring that all internal meetings and committees with members that form the democratic basis of the organisation are held timely and effectively. You will be responsible for communicating and explaining agricultural policy to the members as well as ensuring that the members opinions are communicated through the system.
 
A key component of the role will be to continuously develop and build the FUWs agri-environmental services across Mid & West Wales.
 
The latter is not an exhaustive list of all duties associated with this role as they may change from time to time.
 
Essential:
·       A strong working knowledge of the agriculture sector
·       Thorough understanding of the farming industry and the associated environmental agendas at national and UK levels
·       A proven track record of being able to complete reports and environmental assessments on behalf of farmers.
·       A natural communicator who enjoys meeting and helping people
·       Ability to promote the aims and values of the union
·       Confidence to support in attracting new members and serving our existing membership base contributing to a steady growth to the membership portfolio
·       The ability to sell and promote other services provided by FUW Limited
·       Ability to build and maintain strong rapports with local networks concentrating on the needs of the agricultural sector

Desirable:
·       A degree in Agricultural / Environmental Science or a related subject
·       BASIS and / or FACTS qualification
·       Experience in managing a team

We have an exciting new opportunity for an individual to join our Ceredigion office as County Executive Officer and Agri-Environment Advisor. 
 
This opportunity will see the successful candidate providing support for their local farming community. We live by the view that ‘Farming Matters’ which the successful candidate would need to mirror.

Location: Lampeter
Salary: £30,500
Hours: 35 Hours (Mon-Fri 9-5, with some flexibility)

 
The Role
The successful candidate will provide services to members of the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW). You will be required to keep up to date on current and potential Welsh Government Schemes available for farmers, support with completion of grant applications for members of FUW. The role will also involve the delivery of on-farm advice to our members. You will be supported in this role by a local team of support staff and the head office team. You will also work closely with our agricultural policy team as well as the other county offices based throughout Wales.
 
This role will require you to be responsible for ensuring that all internal meetings and committees with members that form the democratic basis of the organisation are held timely and effectively. You will be responsible for communicating and explaining agricultural policy to the members as well as ensuring that the members opinions are communicated through the system.
 
A key component of the role will be to continuously develop and build the FUWs agri-environmental services across Mid & West Wales.
 
The latter is not an exhaustive list of all duties associated with this role as they may change from time to time.
 
Essential:
·       A strong working knowledge of the agriculture sector
·       Thorough understanding of the farming industry and the associated environmental agendas at national and UK levels
·       A proven track record of being able to complete reports and environmental assessments on behalf of farmers.
·       A natural communicator who enjoys meeting and helping people
·       Ability to promote the aims and values of the union
·       Confidence to support in attracting new members and serving our existing membership base contributing to a steady growth to the membership portfolio
·       The ability to sell and promote other services provided by FUW Limited
·       Ability to build and maintain strong rapports with local networks concentrating on the needs of the agricultural sector

Desirable:
·       A degree in Agricultural / Environmental Science or a related subject
·       BASIS and / or FACTS qualification
·       Experience in managing a team

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has welcomed the decision by the Welsh Government to change a policy proposal which would have prohibited the feeding of unpasteurised milk to livestock on Officially TB Withdrawn (OFTW) premises.

The proposal, which was put forward in the government’s 2021 Refreshed TB Programme consultation, was opposed by FUW members due to factors such as cost, the impracticalities of attempting to pasteurise individual mothers milk for each calf and the welfare benefits of colostrum in the first few days of life.

Following the consultation, the FUW repeatedly met with Welsh Government staff and officials to highlight members' concerns and to discuss the relative cost-benefit of introducing this measure.

Dr Hazel Wright, FUW Acting Head of Policy said: “We have spent a great deal of time and effort presenting our concerns to the Welsh Government over successive meetings on this issue.  We are therefore extremely pleased that our concerns have been heard and that this has resulted in a positive policy change”. 

“It is important for calf welfare that calves are provided with their mothers colostrum and milk for the first few days of life.  Given the immense impracticalities of attempting to pasteurise individual mothers milk for each calf, this proposal could have detrimentally affected calf welfare”

As part of its consultation response the FUW highlighted that while there may be significant risk in individual cases, the overall importance of milk borne transmission in the epidemic is probably low or negligible. Given the relative risk, the union did not believe that this was a priority issue and believed resources would be better spent elsewhere. 

“Whilst this proposal will not now be taken forward, we are encouraging cattle keepers to speak to their vet to understand the risk posed by milk borne transmission on their own individual premises” added Dr Wright. 

Recently-appointed HSBC Bank head of agriculture, Aberystwyth University graduate Allan Wilkinson, will be the guest speaker at the Farmers' Union of Wales' annual eve of the Welsh Dairy Show reception at the United Counties Showground near Carmarthen on Monday October 18 at 7.30pm. The function will follow a visit in the afternoon (starting at 2pm) to the dairy farm of FUW members Keith and Linda Hughes, of Caeau Newydd, Dryslwyn, Carmarthen. Together with their son James, the family currently farm under a "New Zealand" method of spring calving, with an extended grazing period, and milking 310 cows - mainly Jersey cross breed cattle. They also have 180 followers away from the farm under contract rearing. Mr Wilkinson, 46, is responsible for the bank's farming customers in the UK, leading the specialist agriculture team of over 60 managers. A farmer's son, he was born and raised in North East England and has been involved with farming throughout his career. Having obtained a degree in agriculture from Aberystwyth University, he worked as a farm management consultant in Leicestershire for three years before joining HSBC Bank in 1988 as an agriculture banking manager in Shropshire and Herefordshire. He was appointed senior agriculture banking manager for Cumbria and the North East in 1994 and divisional agriculture manager for Northern Counties, Northern Ireland and Scotland in 1998. For the last six and a half years he has held a number of senior leadership posts in the retail and commercial bank network leading teams in Northern England and, more recently, as area commercial director in Newcastle and Northumberland.