Farming has always been the back bone of the countryside, proving work for local people as well as bringing in wealth for distribution and on agriculture depended much of the standard of living of our rural areas. This is not so true today as it was years ago when the fast majority of the working people actually worked on the land.

With mechanisation and improved technology this has reduced the need for so many to work the land and attend the stock.

In turn we all now demand and enjoy an improved standard of living, travelling more with many owning cars.

No longer do we rely on coal and logs to provide our household heat and hot water and oil lamps to provide light. With introduction of the motor car, the railways and road transport we have seen the tourist industry becoming very important to the rural economy. However we must not lose sight of the fact that agriculture still provides employment for 17% of the working population, on or off the farm. This means that a thriving and may I add a profitable agricultural industry is important not only for those that derive a living from the land, but the whole nation.

Those of us in business are fully aware that good times follow bad and nothing goes in a straight line and this is as true of farming prosperity as any other industry.

When food is scarce no one asks’ the price, but when there is a glut we immediately become price conscious.

Due to modern technology and not forgetting favourable summers, world production in many commodities is in surplus and not forgetting poor distribution and politics there are still people starving or at least going hungry. (795 million i.e 1 in 9 ) in addition to the migrant problem and I feel very strongly that both should be addressed by our politicians on a world scale.

After the second world war feeding the nation was looked upon as a serious problem, not only because the U K was almost bankrupt and could not afford to import, but there was a world shortage.

This is not a problem today, but if we depend on imported food of questionable quality our rural areas would fall into decline. We have to accept that the main problem are, price, profitability and power. Because farming is made up of thousands of units of varying size and usually perishable produce, they have little negotiating power, while the supermarkets who behave as a cartel have the power to dictate the price and may I add destroy as they are doing to the dairy industry at the moment.

The answer is we producers must boycott the supermarkets and go direct to the housewife. This can be done and I use milk as an example and may I add needing little or no capital. It has been suggested and this is born out by various costing scheme and our universities that the dairy farmer needs a price of 32 pence per litre (ppc) to break even and unless this is forthcoming my advice to the producer is “call in the auctioneer while you are in a position to do so”.

At the other end we see that the housewife is prepared to pay 50 p p l. We now end up with a figure of 18 pence. We would have to pay the processer, haulage and bottling and I would suggest we have at least 10 pence left to cover the cost of distribution.

I am sorry to say that the door step delivery as we have it today is not working as it is too expensive and a large percentage of houses are empty during the day to receive the milk and it is being delivered at the wrong time.

If you do not own a car, carrying heavy milk bottles from the shop is not really practical although many have no option.

The answer is to employ a driver and van to deliver down every street in town between 5 p m and 8 p m at the same time every evening three or four times a week.

The milk would be sold on the same basis as our shops on a cash basis, so payment would be received before the milk, wages and van have to be paid and this would reduce the cost of the venture to little or nil.

No door knocking as they would know the time.

Why not give it a try?

Please note supermarkets are only interested in their shareholders and profit.

Coming to think of it, I am interested in the later and I suppose you also.

Think about it approached I a business like manner you have nothing to lose, but a lot to gain.

“Nothing venture – nothing gained"

Sir Eric Howells CBE

Llanddewi Velfrey