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Pembrokeshire - Olwen PhillipsSecretary: Helen Scourfield Treasurer: Angela Evans Livestock Representative: Beatrice Williams Dairy Representative: Olwen Phillips Crops representative: Megan Gwyther Welsh Assembly Breakfast - January 2008 Autumn programme The WFU's Autumn programme begins with a decorated egg demonstration by Jean Llewellyn, wife of the County Show's President Elect. Details form Chairman, Joan Irving, on 01834 860894. Pembrokeshire Show - 17 - 19 August 2004 The Pembrokeshire branch of the Women's Food and Farming Union chose "The Perfect Picnic" for their stand at this year's County Show. Examples of two picnics were on display: a hamper full of local delicacies for a day at the races and a traditional barbecue for the beach with locally sourced products. Burgers and kebabs were provided by Andrew Rees and Sons, Narberth. For three days hundreds of milk shakes, plain and flavoured were handed out to visitors to the stand. The milk was supplied by Calon Wen Organic Milk and the Crusha milk flavourings by Silver Spoon. Royal Welsh Show - 19 - 22 July 2004 ................................. Welsh Affairs Representative, Helen Scourfield, and Chairman of Pembrokeshire, Joan Irving, were asked to represent WFU in Wales and to meet HRH Prince Charles at The Royal Welsh Show in the Summer 2004. .................................
................................. ................................. Helen Scourfield met Assembly Minister Jane Hutt at the Royal Welsh Show, where healthy eating and buying local produce was discussed. ................................. ................................. June 2004 On a sunny June evening members and guests visited Milford Haven Coastguard Station. As Pembrokeshire has 180 miles of coastal path (and the odd sheep does get stranded!), we are very dependent on rescue services. Staff at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's station, one of only three in Wales, respond to emergencies 24 hours a day. They also enforce high standards of marine safety to prevent shipping accidents which can cause devastating marine pollution. After enjoying wonderful sea views from the windows of the Coastguard Station we went to Martha's Vineyard for a meal, during which we made final arrangements for our annual strawberry event. Milford Haven Sea Cadets
WFU Pembrokeshire Members had a stand at a recent event where Milk Flavours were given to Milford Haven Sea Cadets. Members made over 600 Welsh Cakes for the cadets. Milk Flavours are made by Silver Spoon using Calon Wen Organic Milk. ............................
............................ ............................ Milford Haven Sea Cadet enjoying Silver Spoon flavoured milk at a stand organised by Pembrokeshire WFU. ............................ ............................
............................ ............................ Pembrokeshire WFU busy rolling dough and cooking Welsh Cakes in a food promotion using Silver Spoon Sugar ............................ ............................ Once again we celebrated the strawberry season in style. At an evening function at the Picton Centre, Haverfordwest, 100 members and guests gathered to celebrate the branch's 21 years of service to agriculture and the 25th anniversary of the national WFU. The guests, seated at tables decorated in strawberry colours with toning floral arrangements of wild flowers and grasses, included the town's Mayor and the Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council. Home made savouries were followed by a wide range of mouth watering desserts made by members. The strawberries were supplied by Eric Jones, Landshipping, and the cream by Bethesda Milk. While much needed rain poured down outside, Bois y Wlad performed a rich repertoire of Welsh songs for us, "Singing," said Chairman Joan Irving when thanking them, "Not only in the language of heaven, but with voices of heaven." Local farmer, Dennis Reed, brought his own brand of inimitable humour to the occasion. Joan called on founder member and past Chairman, Muriel Roberts, to cut the celebration cake which had been made and decorated by Hazel Davies. The vote of thanks, given by Vice Chairman, Olwen Phillips, brought an end to another memorable strawberry evening. Summer Bar B Que
Pembrokeshire's Summer Barbecue was enjoyed by Pembrokeshire WFU Members and friends. ............................ Herbie and Walter demonstrate their talents in Pembrokeshire's version of "Can't Cook Won't Cook". ............................ WFU Conference 2004
This will be the silver jubilee year for WFU, so it will be a very special event. For further details click here ........ ............................ Christmas meeting
Fine local produce, beef, chicken, potatoes, vegetables and sumptuous puddings prepared by Betty was gratefully received. Recent events attended by members, was a reception at the National Assembly of Wales, where Angela Evans represented our Branch, and Glamorgan WFU Annual Dinner, attended by both Betty and Angela. Our next meeting will be in January, when the programme for the forthcoming year will be discussed. There is also an evening meeting at the Nantyffin Motel, Llandissilio - which will be attended by Carwyn Jones, AM, Minister for the Environment and Countryside will be speaking. SEPTEMBER NEWS A coach load of members, husbands and friends spent a most enjoyable and informative day at two local institutions: Dairy Crest in Haverfordwest and Gelli Aur College Farm in Carmarthenshire. The milk processing factory in Haverfordwest was founded in 1930 and was recently taken over by Dairy Crest. The site which is jointly owned by First Milk and Haverfordwest Cheese Ltd. processes 830,000 litres of milk daily from 600 local farms. It produces 75 tons of cheese a day, operating throughout the 24 hours and seven days a week with only 73 staff. We were impressed by the efficiency. From the time the milk leaves the cow until it is vacuum packed as young cheese in 20 kilo blocks takes a mere six hours. Once the milk arrives on site the whole process takes only two hours - without ever being touched by human hands. Nothing is wasted. When the curds have been taken off, the whey itself is separated to take off the fat to be used for fresh cream butter and whey butter which are used in confectionary. Once defatted and desalinated the excess water is boiled off and the remaining whey is turned into powder for the confectionary and baking industries. We also learnt that highly skilled graders determine whether a cheese is mild, mellow or mature; that coloured cheddar has only had Annatto, a food safe tasteless colouring added; and a more cheese is stored for more than a year. The highlight of our visit to Gelli Aur College Farm was watching the robotic milker. Installed ten months ago at a cost of £88,000 it profiles the cow's udder, detects the teat placement, attaches the cluster and then automatically milks the cow. We watched individual cows leave the indoor herd, walk into a pen alongside the robot, position themselves with back legs well apart, and wait patiently while it "messed around" with their udders and teats, whenever they wanted to be milked. They familiarise themselves with this routine within a few days and, on average, go to be milked 2.5 times in 24 hours. We did see one cow being automatically released from the pen because the robot knew that she hadn't enough milk. Although robotic milking cuts down on labour, the Project Manager, Arwel Davies, is on call from the robot throughout the day and night. As well as the dread of a beakdown he also stressed that high hygiene standards are essential if the system is to work. The College has 100 full and part time students. The farm of 172 ha includes parkland, horticultural and equine areas. It is one of three Development Farms in Wales whose programme includes running a Diversification Centre, training farming families in ICT through Farming Connect, finding speakers for discussion groups and organising study tours. We saw the beef enterprise where the current potential income from producing finished beef from the dairy herd is being analysed, and the main enterprise which is milk production. From a viewing platform we watched the milking of cows being evaluated under two different dairy systems used in Wales. The one group were Autumn calvers, the other Spring calvers. All the variable and overhead costs of a high margin per cow system are being evaluated against a high margin per litre system, on a unit cost basis. The data is collected for the Kingshay Farming Trust and, so far, profitability is rising in both groups. Our thanks went to our secretary Olwen Phillips for organising such an interesting Autumn Visit for us - and it ended with a good meal at the Fox and Hounds, Bancyfelin on our way home. Harvest Supper - 6 October 2003 Chairman, Betty Roch and husband Walter with a display of prime Welsh Produce for our yearly Harvest Supper at their home at Bolton Hill Mill.
Joan Irving never stops - here she is dishing out the sumptuous puddings at our Harvest Supper.
Royal Welsh Show - 21 - 24 July 2003
The Royal Welsh Show had the most visitors so it was the Top Agricultural Show for 2003. It had 213,538 visitors compared with 159,000 at The Royal Show and 150,386 at The Royal Highland Show. Members played an active role in promoting cheese at this year's Royal Welsh Show. The WFU Wales stand, which was in a prime position, attracted large crowds on each of the four days. Members looked stylish in their new white aprons and yellow-ribboned boaters, offering cheese tasting to appreciative visitors to the stand. A wide variety of Regional Welsh cheeses were attractively displayed alongside the Somerset Brie, Stilton and Pembrokeshire Cheddar in a large refrigerated display cabinet.
The stand was lined with yellow cotton curtains to set the cheeses off to perfection. A large floral arrangement contained cascades of white gladioli flowing from a milk pail towards a cheese press filled with a mass of yellow flowers. The cheeses included the award winning Cilowen Organic and the Llanboidy, produced by WFU member Sue Jones from her herd of Red Poll cows.
Members were delighted to have their President, Gillian van der Meer, on the stand each day. On the Tuesday morning, she gave an excellent report on the work of WFU to Roy Noble on Radio Wales. She also attended the two receptions held: one for 140 invited guests on Monday and another on Wednesday afternoon for all WFU members who were at the Show that day.
CEC Wales's representative, Joan Irving, who organised and managed the stand, said: "Members have left their farms and their families to work here on the stand with me this week. It has been a great success and it could not have been done without their support". WFU has been celebrating the diversity of regional cheeses across the country throughout the summer months. www.wfu.org.uk |
Pembrokeshire is to host the WFU Annual Conference in March 2004 at the Fishguard Bay Hotel. 
Visitors to the stand included the Welsh Assembly's Rural Affairs Minister, Carwyn Jones, who thanked members for the cheese promotion, and Health Minister, Jane Hutt, who said: "What wonderful cheeses, and they are so beautifully displayed." Members of the public enjoyed the tasting very much, and said they would be buying and experimenting with the different types of cheeses displayed.
