Times are a changing – a new MP, a new parliament, and a new NFU Cymru county chair for Montgomeryshire. Being a former group secretary for NFU Cymru, I never thought when I left my post to farm, that I would become a scribe again.

Alex Higgs will be a very tough act to follow. She has had many challenges, including the unfinished Brexit, NVZs, and rewilding issues to name but a few. I wish her all the best in her various farming enterprises.

For those who do not know me, I farm with my wife and son in the Dyfi Valley, near the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust Reserve. We milk 80 cows. The usual climate here is wet, or nearer ‘monsoon’ as of late, having rainfall levels of 55-75 inches a year. Much of the farm is at sea level and lies within the Dyfi National Nature Reserve SSSI.

After leaving my position as NFU Cymru group secretary in Welshpool in 1990, we started farming suckler cows and sheep, and after getting our numbers up the sector was hit by BSE, followed by foot and mouth, the introduction of cattle passports, then the six day movement rules, and now the concerns over bovine TB and Brexit. During that time we have been part of various Welsh Government environmental schemes but we are now no longer involved in any such scheme.

In 2014 we decided milking cows seemed a better prospect for the future, so we approached South Caernarfon Creameries for a milk contract, which they duly gave us for an autumn calving herd. Throughout that year three second-hand milking parlours were purchased, and we started installing them ourselves as one. Sixty heifers were bought during that autumn and these we put to the bull in December. By the end of August 2015 the parlour was up and running, cubicles were in, and we sold our first milk on September 2. During that first year we saw milk prices dive to very low levels, but thankfully prices have since stabilised. What the future holds is anyone’s guess with all the turmoil Brexit and new trade deals may bring. At least now we know to some extent what the next year may involve, though that is just the beginning.

I would like to wish all readers a very happy new year. Let’s hope that 2020 will be a year full of good fortune for all.