Halfway through February and we are coming to a close with our farmhouse breakfasts for this year, writes FUW Montgomeryshire chairman Iwan Pughe-Jones.

This is usually a staple activity for January, however we were severely curtailed again this year.

Those breakfast events that were held received tremendous support and we thank all those who have played their part in making them happen but the challenge of such an undertaking during a period of restrictions cannot be underestimated.

We are now looking to undertake a series of social events of a similar nature during late spring or early summer as we are acutely aware that our County Staff and members do need to start socialising under the FUW banner once more.

We do have plans so let’s hope that this virus really is in retreat.

County Times: Farmhouse breakfast cereal. Picture by Mik Coia.

Farmhouse breakfast cereal. Picture by Mike Coia.

Inflation fears at the start of this year are also a concern and this is reflected in our position as a Union supporting producers of high-quality produce.

The attention being paid to increased prices in the shops is quite natural and understandable and as those of us who do the weekly shop would say it’s difficult not to notice the increases which are fast becoming a weekly occurrence.

However, the overall attention to this issue is missing a key point which is the vast increase in input prices that farmers and food producers are dealing with. Electricity costs, for example, are increasing at speed with little protection for commercial users and such a development has a particular impact upon our dairy sector.

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Serve yourself a fundraising farmhouse breakfast.

Animal feed and fuel prices have also increased dramatically but as customers are squeezed the impact is being felt throughout the food chain with farmers increasingly at the mercy of a food chain attempting to save costs at every level. The easy narrative of beef or lamb increasing in price by 12% or 15% is ignoring the impact of the price changes being felt by producers.

This is an issue that we will raise with our political representatives when we meet with them over the coming weeks.

Inflation is always a danger to the management of a business and there is nothing that persuades us that this is not the case in 2022.

With that in mind and to finish on a positive note this week, we welcomed an announcement from HMRC that silage wrap will not be subject to agriculture packaging tax from 1 April, as it has been recognised as essential for the fermentation of grass.

Without the concession a tax of £200 tonne on all single use plastic packaging would have been introduced, adding to the financial burden placed on the industry already.