Pembrokehshire farmers meet local AM
"Farmgate beef and lamb prices need to increase substantially to ensure the long term viability of livestock production in Pembrokeshire," Perkin Evans, Pembrokeshire NFU County Chairman told local AM, Angela Burns, at a recent on-farm meeting.
Pembrokeshire NFU Cymru members held a positive meeting with the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire AM, at Court Farm, Castlemartin by kind permission of Stephen Alderman and his family.
Perkin Evans highlighted the very serious predicament that beef and sheep farmers find themselves in as a result of increased feed and fuel prices at the same time as Foot and Mouth has crippled opportunities for the export of lamb, barren cows and calves.
Mr Evans said, "As a result of a buoyant world market for cereal and dairy products we have seen improved prices in these two sectors in recent months which must be welcomed. Although in the dairy sector in particular it must be remembered that retail prices continue to increase by a far greater percentage than farmgate price.
"However the beef and sheep sector is a different story with market prices at best unchanged for prime beef but prices for barren cows and lamb have plummeted in recent weeks. In the absence of rapid changes to market prices to compensate for increased on-farm costs, I fear for the long term viability of beef and sheep production in Pembrokeshire."
Mr Evans continued, "The problems in the livestock sector are not solely a result of increased costs, Foot and Mouth has also had a major impact, in particular with regards our export markets, it is high time Government accepted full responsibility for this outbreak and compensated farmers fairly for the damage caused to our industry."
The burden and stress that regulatory inspections place on the industry were also a major discussion point and Angela Burns agreed to pursue this issue through the National Assembly.
Mr Evans said, "Our members regularly report that they receive several inspections from various authorities within the space of a few weeks, a scenario that I myself have been unfortunate enough to experience in recent weeks. This is wasteful and costly, not just for the farmer, but for the various inspecting bodies as well."
He concluded, "It is imperative that the Welsh Assembly Government works closely with all the inspecting agencies to ensure that information regarding inspections, TB testing and Farm Assurance is shared and collated to stop this duplication and design an integrated risk based inspection regime for the farming industry in Wales."
