New chairman of NFU Cymru Milk Board announced

A DAIRY farmer from Carmarthenshire has been elected as the new NFU Cymru Milk Board chairman.

Gareth Richards farms at Alltyfyrddin in Abergwili, Carmarthenshire. The farm comprises 100 Holstein cows with 120 Jacob sheep.

Along with a bed and breakfast business, Gareth and his wife Sharon also run Merlin’s Centre and Open Farm where they welcome local schools and holidaymakers to learn about the history of Merlin’s Hill and the local heritage.

The open farm also allows children to gain first-hand experience of farm life.

Mr Richards is club leader and president-elect of St Peters YFC in Carmarthenshire and is also a board adviser at Coleg Sir Gâr.

He said: “The board’s priorities looking forward are to ensure we obtain a favourable outcome postBrexit to enable dairy farmers to have a prosperous future.

“I believe there will be more opportunities to replace imports that are coming in at the moment and to export more Welsh produce to other parts of the world.

“This in turn could lead to more farmers getting together to form dairy producer organisations (DPOs) in order to work closer with the processor.

“This is an exciting and challenging time for me to take over as chairman with the UK set to leave the EU, and I will strive to ensure the voice of Welsh farmers is heard not only in Wales and the UK but wherever decisions are being taken that will impact on Welsh dairy farmers.”

Abi Reader from Glamorgan was elected as vice-chair of the Milk Board for the next two years.