24/03/2013

Available for over a year

On Your Farm visits Powys to find out why one farmer's plans for expansion have so far spent five years on the drawing board. A thousand farmers have gone out of milk production in that time in Wales alone, yet under EU quota rules, the UK as a whole has room to expand production. Farmers like Fraser Jones, a third-generation dairy farmer in Leighton, believe that expansion is the only way forward, yet his plans to increase his herd there from 300 to 1,000 cows are attracting widespread local opposition. Fraser argues that his farm would incorporate the latest technology and should be a model for others to follow: his opponents say that it will simply be in the wrong place, sited only yards from the local primary school. Caz Graham visits Leighton to hear why parents in an area with a rich dairy farming tradition are so firmly against Fraser's plans, and to talk to him about how he'd like to see his farm, and the industry, develop in the future.