At what is the traditional time of year for looking back over the past 12 months, the one phrase that will come to mind for most Welsh farmers is good riddance.
And as we look forward to a new and better year, it is difficult to remember a time when the Welsh industry as a whole wasn't so desperately in need of a good year.
In fact, we could do with a run of good years to make up for the catalogue of problems and exceptional circumstances that seem to have beset us since 1995.
In order to avoid the usual allegations of talking the industry down I am happy to say that we have seen the beginnings of a long overdue turn-around for the dairy industry, and that is clearly to be welcomed.
But I will not shy away from the truth regarding our livestock industry - 2007 started bad, with prices still not coming anywhere close to reflecting the sustainable and fair values that farmers deserve, and imports of lamb from New Zealand driving prices further downwards.
This dire situation prompted the Welsh Assembly Government's 2020 Report to state that, despite the fact that "Farming plays a fundamental part in Welsh life, industry and culture, most businesses would not be able to survive on the financial returns which the Welsh agricultural industry continues to produce".
That statement paints a pretty bleak picture - and that was before the double bombshells of foot-and-mouth disease and bluetongue hit the industry in the late summer/early autumn of 2007.
Those outbreaks caused a crash in market prices, that is still affecting us, and severe management problems that will continue well into next year and beyond.
All this leads us to the inevitable question - what is needed to put the industry back on its feet? A host of answers come immediately to mind, the most obvious being fair compensation from Government for the impact that the release of FMD from a government licensed laboratory has had.
But in the long term there is one need that overrides all others. What the industry needs, above all else, is sustainable incomes - incomes that appropriately reflect the value of an industry that feeds the nation.
So who holds the key to lifting the barriers that prevent those sustainable incomes being attained, so as to lift Welsh farm incomes from their current average level of just £12,500?
In my mind, the answer is clear and obvious - it is those who govern us at all levels, from our Local Authorities, through the WAG and Defra, to the European Commission and Parliament in Brussels.
Whether we are talking about the impact of FMD, bluetongue, bTB, supermarket power, Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) or any of the other obstacles that exist to profitability, those who have been elected and appointed to rule us at all levels have the power to improve circumstances and alleviate the current pressures.
At a Local Authority level, we need to see far more support for, and encouragement of local procurement, and support for local businesses and initiatives that support local farmers.
The situation as it currently stands could not have been better designed by the major retailers themselves - do everything possible to discourage the public from visiting our traditional shops by plastering streets with double-yellow lines, while cowering to supermarket power over planning procedures and actively encouraging shopping away from local businesses.
Indeed, this appeasement seems to permeate almost every layer of government, from Local Authority level right up to the level of the EU.
Following the FMD outbreak in August, I wrote to the Competition Commission expressing concern that some supermarkets would profiteer from rapidly falling farmgate prices by failing to pass savings on to the consumer, and lobbied at all levels, including Number 10, to encourage more public procurement, and support from the supermarkets, in the wake of the release of FMD into the environment.
Yet the price of most lamb sold through the major supermarkets remained largely unchanged, and in some cases increases, while farm prices fell through the floor - and some have even continued to encourage the public to buy foreign imports while the UK industry faces catastrophe.
And a quick scan of many supermarket shelves will reveal a symptom of similar appeasement, only on a grander scale trans-European scale - Brazilian beef side by side with Welsh beef.
While the UK continues to suffer from the repercussions of a ban of exports due to FMD, prepares itself for the double tagging of sheep due to EC traceability requirements and farmers wonder why they suddenly have to pay hundreds of pounds to get licences that allow them to meet EC animal transport regulations, Brazil are allowed to continue importing beef to the EC despite a catalogue of serious failings stretching back over years that would see the Welsh farmers severely fined and possibly imprisoned.
As far as the WAG is concerned, the aspirations regarding the farming industry made in the One-Wales document are certainly praiseworthy, and it would be premature to judge the Labour-Plaid coalition after such a short term in office.
However, the last few months have highlighted major shortcomings in the ability of the WAG to apply commonsense by overriding the plethora of petty bureaucracy that flows at a seemingly unstoppable rate from the EC - in spite of promises of cutting red tape.
When the FUW asked for all Single Payments to be released early in order to alleviate the severe cash flow problems facing the industry, the answer was "we would like to but can't because of EC rules and regulations". Not only that, but the regulations have actually delayed payments to those who are facing desperate financial times due to EC requirements to perform cross checks.
To me, all this points to one obstacle to profitability, and that is a lack of support for the farming industry at a host of levels, most notably at the EC level who seem to thrive on producing inflexible and badly drafted regulations.
Yet farming will undeniably play a crucial leading role in mitigating the effects of climate change and meeting that old, sometimes forgotten, purpose of providing the most valuable commodity on the planet: food.
With enough political will at all levels, farming incomes can become sustainable, and we will be able to protect the rural communities that will play a crucial role in mitigating the impacts of climate change and rising populations.
Politicians who fail to provide that support play a dangerous game with the future of all our futures.
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