BLINK and you will have missed it!

There it was for another year - the Royal Welsh Show is over and done with.

And what a week it has been!

During the week, we discussed a wide range of issue during meetings and of course at the seminars we hosted at the FUW Pavilion, including rural crime, Brexit, mental health, innovation and diversification, as well as mobile communication.

The speakers were all excellent and offered a real insight into the many problems our farming communities face.

But, they also offered solutions and certainly plenty of food for thought.

So, here a big thank-you to the panelists and all of you who came to support the events.

The show reminded me also why we need this union so much.

We are here because we believe in our industry, in the family farm and in Wales, and because they need someone to help make their voice heard.

With that in mind, I would like to remember Llew Jones - our last founder member who passed away last year shortly after the Royal Welsh Show.

He was a forward thinking man, a visionary and he, like all our founder members, would want us to look forward - to continue in our fight for the survival of agriculture in Wales and to make sure that the voices of our family farms are being heard loud and clear.

And that’s exactly what we will do.

Like many of our founder members, life members and other farming stalwarts who have come and gone over the years, there were two people who were very worthy of being recognised for their services to agriculture at the annual FUW President’s reception.

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to once again congratulate the winners of the FUW internal and external award for services to agriculture - Alun Elidyr Edwards and Brian Jones, of Castell Howell Foods.

They are certainly worthy winners and on behalf of the FUW I thank them for all they have done for our industry.

GLYN ROBERTS

FUW president