Gareth Vaughan and his family run a farm near Newtown

Gareth Vaughan, 61, who runs a 700 acre farm with his wife, daughter and son-in-law at Dolfor, near Newtown is the new President of the Farmers Union of Wales.

He takes over from Bob Parry who has stood down after 12 years in the role.

So many farming families have to take other jobs to keep some sort of income coming in but we have to try and keep young people in the industry Gareth Vaughan, FUW President

The sheep and suckler cow farmer has vowed to stand up for his members' rights on a number of issues.

"I believe I have the attributes to do the job and I have never been known to back down from an argument or a fight," said Mr Vaughan, who grew up on a farm near Llanidloes.

Part of that farm, along with six others, was drowned in the 1960s to enable the Clywedog dam to be built.

"My father was a member of the National Farmers Union but we felt let down because they didn't back us in our fight to save the community from being destroyed," said Mr Vaughan.

"I then decided to join the Farmers Union of Wales because I believed they could better represent the small Welsh hill farmer."

This experience sparked Mr Vaughan's interest in farming politics which culminated in his election as Montgomeryshire county chairman in 1990.

Mr Vaughan wants to increase the number of small abattoirs

He has farmed at Dolfor since 1968, but believes it is much more difficult for young families to stay in the industry nowadays.

"So many farming families have to take other jobs to keep some sort of income coming in but we have to try and keep young people in the industry," he said.

Other issues close to the new leader's heart are to increase the number of small abattoirs, the problem of illegal meat importation and sorting out the late payments for farmers.

"We have to persuade the government to facilitate the increase of small abattoirs which can only be good for the industry," said Mr Vaughan.

More than 7,500 tonnes of illegal meat products enter the UK every year.

"It is now believed that the importation of antelope brought BSE into this country so we have to stop this importation of bush meat into the country," said Mr Vaughan.

Churchill was worried that not enough food was being produced

Mr Vaughan is also concerned that a proposed reform involving a move away from payments based on the number of livestock owned by a farmer to the area of land farmed could lead to fewer animals being raised on the land.

"This would lead to a drop in Welsh food production and turn many farmers into little more than glorified park keepers," he said.

"Winston Churchill once said he was worried that the British agricultural industry could only feed 15 million of its 30 million population.

"But now we have a population of 60 million yet it seems as though we are being encouraged to produce less food and it makes no sense."