As chair of NFU Cymru Montgomeryshire, I attended the NFU Conference in Birmingham last month. Not only do you have the opportunity to attend interesting talks and discussions, but you meet a range of people in all kinds of agricultural sectors from England and Wales. It is inspiring to hear about all the different enterprises: a pea grower from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire who runs three pea viners through the harvest, a pig farmer in Norfolk rearing piglets outdoors, a fruit grower from Kent worried about seasonal labour. These professional farmers provide the British people with a vast range of food.

Minette Batters, president of the NFU, opened the conference with an introduction covering all the issues NFU and NFU Cymru have to address: Brexit, trade deals, bovine TB, veganism, the environment, climate change, pollution, fly tipping, tenants’ rights and promoting agriculture to the public to name a few. She went on to tell us how the NFU is launching new initiatives to highlight British Farming. ‘United by our Environment, our Food, and our Future’ is a document describing how the industry influences the environment. ‘The Future of Food 2040’ report begins the discussion about producing high quality, safe traceable food for the UK and Global Markets for the next 20 years. It also discussed her aspiration for British agriculture to be net-zero for greenhouse emissions by 2060, to help mitigate global warming.

The vote to leave the EU has started the debate about British farming and food production. British and Welsh Government want a say in future Agricultural Policy. Trade deals with new countries for our products and imports from other countries will change. We have never needed the lobbying power of NFU Cymru so much. The NFU and NFU Cymru have over 200 employees throughout England and Wales. In every county there is a county adviser and several group secretaries, plus the local branch office holders selected from the farming community.

If you want to join with this large lobbying group join NFU Cymru and start to come to meetings to influence the future of agriculture in Wales. You can get more information on joining by visiting the NFU Cymru website or by calling the office on 01982 554200.

Finally, I would like to congratulate Rob Lewis, NFU Cymru chairman of Brecon and Radnor, who was the Welsh winner of the Meurig Raymond Award for his commitment to NFU Cymru and the farming industry.