One year on… how has Welsh farm policy changed?

Triggered by poor communication from the government, a disregard for the science and a lack of clarity on support, farmers’ emotions boiled over in February 2024, with protests taking place across Wales.

The trouble, which saw 3,000 farmers descend on the Welsh capital, had some of its roots in the subsidy reform proposals that had been in the making since the UK voted in 2016 to leave the EU.

Despite extensive industry engagement, the Welsh government’s plans, put before farmers in December 2023, threatened to decimate food production and risk the overall collapse of the rural economy.

See also: Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme: All you need to know 

“There was a feeling of disbelief among farmers over what they were expected to do,” recalls NFU Cymru president Aled Jones.

“I remember the expression of people in the meetings, a number of them looking bemused. They were totally disenchanted with the whole affair.”

On top of that were long-standing frustrations with bovine TB policy, the water pollution regulations, and concerns about future funding.

As time went on and the problems remained unresolved, industry frustration turned to anger.

Sustainable Farming Scheme

Farmers objected in their thousands to the proposed Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), which was branded “unworkable” by the unions.

The job of revamping it fell to Huw Irranca-Davies, who took over as rural affairs minister in March 2024. He has since worked with industry to shape a scheme that more people can support, including delaying the start date to January 2026.

Under the revised proposals, the controversial requirement for 10% tree cover has been moved from the “universal” set of actions to the “optional” layer, while the number of universal actions has been cut from 17 to 12.

Farmers will still have to have a tree planting and hedgerow “creation opportunity plan” in place, and make progress on that by 2030.

And they are still being asked to manage 10% of their land as habitat for wildlife, while the government also wants to see 43,000ha of new woodland planted by 2030, rising to 180,000ha by 2050.

The changes have been cautiously welcomed by farm groups, although there is still a way to go. 

“We’ve now got the real work to do – on the modelling, the economic analysis, and the detail of the other collaborative and optional actions,” says Mr Irranca-Davies.

Huw Irranca-Davies © FUW

Bovine TB

Linked to the protests, farm leaders were also calling for a review of the Welsh government’s bovine TB eradication programme.

A staggering 12,278 animals were slaughtered in Wales between October 2023 and September 2024, with testing taking both a financial and emotional toll on farmers.

“While I recognise some of the concerns and frustrations out there, the work we’ve done in Wales on TB over the past year has really paid dividends,” says Mr Irranca-Davies.

Changes include the establishment of the Bovine TB Technical Advisory Group in April 2024, followed by the creation of a new Bovine TB Eradication Programme Board, to advise the government.

Further pre-movement testing for TB has been introduced, while changes to slaughter rules provide a stay of execution for TB-positive cows that are within 60 days of calving.

The routine testing of calves under 42 days old in a TB incident is no longer carried out, unless the risk is considered high.

Welcoming some of these changes, Mr Jones says: “I’m pleased that the minister has taken a hands-on approach and that he’s taking responsibility.”

Ian Rickman © FUW

Pollution controls 

Frustrations with the government’s pan-Wales approach to nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ) regulations were also grounds for widespread unrest.

Farmers’ Union of Wales president Ian Rickman says: “I remember telling the previous minister ‘you can’t farm by calendar’ five years ago, and the message hasn’t changed,”

“All of us comply with all this onerous paperwork. It’s not doing anything to improve agricultural pollution. It needs a targeted approach,” he says.

In July 2024, Mr Irranca-Davies appointed Dr Susannah Bolton to oversee a statutory review of the water pollution regulations.

Some relief came in October 2024, as short-term amends were announced, including more proportionate penalties where technical non-compliances do not present a pollution risk.

Penalties will also be reduced for those who have undertaken reasonable steps to meet the new storage requirements, but who are not yet fully compliant.

Farm union leaders say the situation remains volatile and “the fire is by no means out” while the core regulations remain unchanged.

They want action to address the associated costs, planning applications, closed periods, nitrogen limits, record keeping and inspections, among the list of issues raised.

Finances

Faced with concerns about the level of rural funding in Wales, in December 2024 the Welsh government confirmed an extra £108m in departmental spending for the next financial year.

It also pledged to maintain the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) ceiling at £238m for 2025.

Mr Jones says: “Supporting Wales’s farmers through the BPS to the tune of £238m annually produces a gross output of £2.2bn in the same year – a return of almost £9 for every £1 given in government support.”

However, concerns remain following the “Barnettisation” of the budget by UK chancellor Rachel Reeves, which links future funding for Wales to the total population, rather than the specific agricultural structure, and means rural funding is no longer “ring-fenced”.

“It worries me that not enough farmers will go into it [the SFS] if the financial incentive isn’t there,” says Mr Rickman. “It would have a huge impact on the rural economy.”

Case study: Rhys Parry, Digon yw Digon

© Farmers Weekly

Rhys Parry, a beef and sheep farmer from Machynlleth, mid-Wales, is a founder of the farmer protest group Digon yw Digon (Enough is Enough). 

He and fellow founder Gwyn Edwards met one Saturday in January 2024 and talked about what was going wrong in Welsh agriculture.

“We could see the time was running out with the Sustainable Farming Scheme and TB has been rife. So many of us have been affected with it over the years, and NVZ was coming in as well.”

By the Sunday morning they had decided something needed to be done.

Word spread like wildfire on WhatsApp groups, and on the next Thursday, 1 February, 1,200 farmers met at Welshpool mart for the first Digon yw Digon meeting, to show the Welsh government how they felt.

“When you get a turnout like that, it makes a massive statement,” says Mr Parry. “What Gwyn and I felt, more people felt it. It was that feeling of despair.

“But people were glad that someone was prepared to stand up and do something. The unions have been working hard, but their voice has been falling on deaf ears for years.

“It takes something like this for a government to realise they have a problem.”

Positive change

One year on, Mr Parry says there have been some positive changes in Wales.

“We stood up as an industry, we forced the Welsh government to amend and delay the roll-out of the SFS. It guaranteed the single farm payment for the next year, which is huge.”

Digon yw Digon is still active, especially since the disastrous Autumn Budget from Westminster.

“There will be more protests – we’ve not seen enough movement from Welsh government or Westminster,” says Mr Parry.

“Keir Starmer has lied through his teeth, and one swoop of Rachel Reeves’ pen has destroyed an industry. It’s an absolute betrayal.”