Last week saw NFU Cymru’s annual Welsh Farming Week take place.

In early June NFU Cymru launched its new Welsh Farming Week reel competition where farmers were encouraged to produce short reels on what sustainability means to them and what it looks like on their farm. The winner of this competition was announced on Monday 29th June with the winning entry being submitted by Chloe Smith from Mid Glamorgan. The entry impressed judges with its well-executed creativity, storytelling, quality of footage and encapsulated what sustainable food production looks like on a Welsh farm. As winner of the competition Chloe received an Outback Outfitters smock and a £200 voucher. The runners up were; Second place – Katie-Rose Davies; Third place – Bryony Gittins; Joint fourth place – Rowena Jones and Elin Protheroe. The winning reel can be found on the NFU Cymru website.

Tuesday took us to Llanvetherine, Abergavenny to the annual NFU Cymru/Wynnstay Group Plc Sustainable Farming Conference where this year’s Sustainable Agricultural Award was presented to Peter Loxdale, a dairy and livestock farmer from Llanilar near Aberystwyth in Ceredigion. Receiving the NFU Cymru/Wynnstay Sustainable Agriculture Award Welsh slate barometer and the £500 competition prize, Peter said he was 'humbled and honoured' to see his efforts recognised. We were delighted that Gary and Jess Yeomans and family were able to host the conference and nearly 200 farmers and stakeholders were able to see sustainable farming in action on a tour of the farm. The conference also heard from NFU Cymru President Abi Reader who told the audience that the new political landscape provides a monumental opportunity to create an enabling policy framework to help Welsh farmers deliver for food security and the environment. We were pleased that Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability, Llyr Gruffydd MS addressed the conference and shared his government’s ambition for Welsh farming and his desire to work with NFU Cymru to deliver that. The conference closed with an inspiring panel of four farmers, Katie-Rose Davies, Claire Jones, Lyn Anthony and Elliw Griffith who talked about what sustainable farming means to them.

On Wednesday, NFU Cymru staff and local farmers headed to Ysgol Bro Alun in Wrexham bringing the farmyard to the schoolyard to provide a series of workshops and lessons to support children’s understanding about food production from farm-to-fork.

Thursday took us further north where we once again brought a taste and view of Welsh agriculture to Llandudno. The promenade area of Llandudno was transformed into a Welsh food and farming hub with life-sized model farm animals and samples of Welsh food and drink for passers-by to have a true taste of the quality produce coming from Welsh farms.

Finally, the week finished with on farm meetings taking place across Wales with politicians including First Minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth, providing an opportunity for members to give MSs insight into the day-to-day work of Welsh farmers and the role they play in feeding the nation, whilst also caring for and enhancing their local environment.