ANGER and confusion hung over the Royal Welsh Showground on the opening day of this year’s Winter Fair, as farmers gave mixed reactions to Welsh Government changes to a controversial subsidy scheme.
The powers that be caused consternation nationally in February when they introduced proposals for its new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), to be introduced in 2026.
Plans included farmers needing to have a minimum of 10 per cent tree cover on their land, in a bid to boost wildlife habitats and counteract the effects of climate change.
The SFS was widely criticised by opposition parties and farming leaders, resulting in thousands of farmers protesting outside the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff Bay in February – hundreds more from Wales marched on London last week over yet more contentious changes to inheritance tax announced in the Budget.
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Huw Irranca-Davies, the deputy first minister of Wales, confirmed a number of changes to the Welsh Government’s controversial sustainable farming scheme on the first day of the 2024 Winter Fair in Llanelwedd, just outside Builth Wells, on Monday, November 25.
The news was met with parts cautious optimism, but also anger from those scattered around the showground, with many left feeling, yet again, that farmers’ voices are not really being heard.
“They were never going to be able to do that, making farmers turn 10 per cent of their land into wildlife habitat,” said Kerry Warren, a pig farmer from Pontypool.
“They are having to go back on that because every farmer had a problem with it. Literally every farmer is looking at this, going ‘no, this doesn't sound right at all’.
“They are the people making up these rules and they're not going round to the farmers asking them.
“I personally believe if there's no farming, there's no Britain, that's what Britain is. We're a farming country. We're a farming nation.”
“There was the plan to put 10 per cent of the land into timber, as a universal scheme for the whole of Wales, but that didn't make sense at all. It’s not a one size fits all.”
Ieuan and Valmai Thomas, who farm in Pembrokeshire, said a proposed tax on diesel summed up what the hierarchy thinks of farmers.
“I guess you expect your own government to push on your own country. And they’re not,” said Ieuan.
“They don’t think about us living in the country and the need for 4x4 vehicles and how vital they are, as was made abundantly clear this week with all the flooding and snow.
“They are supposed to be the most intelligent people in the country. But they are bringing it down.”
Changes to the tree scheme include the removal of a farm-level figure for tree cover, which will be replaced with a scheme-wide target.
Farmers who apply for the scheme will be able to decide where they want to add more trees or hedges on their farm and how many, with funding to support them.
Other changes include cutting the checklist of actions farmers would have to sign up to in order to access the scheme's universal layer, from 17 to 12.
A range of tasks around animal health, welfare and biosecurity, meanwhile, have been merged into one.
Mr Irranca-Davies said changes to the scheme addressed the needs of Welsh farmers, while supporting sustainable production of food, as well as climate change and nature commitments.
“Down our way they’ve tried the biodiversity route. They’ve taken lambs off the moors. They’ve taken the stock off the land so the lambs at market weren’t moor lambs, they were store bought lambs.
“It was a crazy move. If the same happens here in Wales it's going to be a real mess.”
Matthew Thomas, a Ludlow farmer, summed up the mood succinctly when he explained that whatever happens, he’ll still be out in his wellies every day – because “It's a way of life.”
“I don't know how to do anything else,” he said.
“They don't seem to be listening to the people who know what they're doing. Hopefully, with the reversal today, it’s a bit more hopeful, but we'll see.
“We just have to push forward and push back. That’s the message, just carry on, because we don't know anything else, anything different.”
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