Day 3

Landed in Heathrow airport at 6:30 am London time and we were off to get the hire cars. After an hour we headed out of London on the M4 heading to Wales “Cymru”. Home to Tom Jones, Cardiff Arms Park and lots of sheep.
We had our first farm visit in the Severn & Wye River’s delta. The farm was the on the English side of the border by a couple of roads. Nuffield scholar Lyndon Edwards runs an organic dairy with his son. We heard a couple of words that would become common for the rest of the Welsh leg of the trip. “Grant & Kit”
After a cup of tea we headed out to the dairy &cow sheds. The cows get a TMR (Total Mixed Ration) The dairy produces all of its own hay and silage. They buy in organic grain and additives like rock phosphate and lime.
After a good squiz around we head to the ubiquitise English Pub for lunch and a couple of local brews.
Next stop Usk Castle. Nick Davies a Welsh Nuffield Scholar thought we should not get over loaded on the first day with jetlag as well, so it was off to his aunties castle. She was a gracious host and allowed us to have a tour of her family’s castle. We had a good look around and then headed to the house for a cuppa, where inevitably the talk soon returned to farming. Nick gave us information about the relationship with the EU and the member states The CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) was where the word GRANT or subsidy was introduced. The grant is the subsidy paid to farmers to help them survive given the area of the farms and inefficiencies within the EU.
In England the grant is now given once a year and is based on the number of acres you conduct farming upon. Welsh farmers are treated differently. They use historical payments.Three production years 2001-2003 were monitored. The farmers are paid once a year with the average those years and the numbers of animals during that time.
We travelled on to Cardiff for tea and a good nights sleep. So far the best comment of the trip goes the Marty from tropical North Queensland. “Why are all these trees dead-could it have been a bushfire?” Queensland’s trees are all evergreen mate!