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How to cut cost of raising heifers

DAIRY farmers spend an average of £1,090 on rearing replacement heifers, but could slash costs by changing their system. Read

Moc Morgan

Finding a hot spot is a struggle in cold weather

THE 2008 fishing season has not had a very auspicious opening two months, although there have been a few highlights. Read

Elin Jones

Farmers must be in tune with customers’ needs, says minister

IT CAN be easy to forget sometimes that farming is not about the production of animals or the growing of crops – it is about the supply of food. When a farmer sells a fat lamb, that is not the finished product. The final product is the lamb chop on the dinner plate. Read

Brian Lee

Boy wonder Rhys Flint bags his first hat-trick

WALES’ Rhys Flint, 17, continues to make the racing headlines. Read

Liz Shankland

Down to Earth: Liz Shankland

There comes a time when even the best of mothers has to get tough and let the youngster cope Read

Sheila Coleman

Bacon doesn’t come from sheep

PRIMARY schools across Wales are to get a new DVD, but rather than the latest fantasy blockbuster it is a practical film about farming and where our food comes from. Read

Gareth Vaughan

Proof that farming progress can safeguard tradition

IT IS often claimed by people outside the industry that farmers are reluctant to change their traditional style of farming and slow to grasp new challenges. Read

Mark Hinge

Help the countryside by reporting the fly-tippers

AS YOU read this, my face is in one piece and all my teeth and bones are intact. Read

Liz Shankland

Stagefright is a worry for show

The clock is ticking as our smallholder columnist prepares to venture into the showring for the first time Read

Paddy Rooney

Feeling the pain of soaring inflation

THERE have been increasingly frequent criticisms of inflation statistics, with unfavourable comparisons between the official Consumer Price Index and the experience of particular groups. Read

Dai Davies

The Government should realise farm potential

IF THE Government is serious about helping to tackle the developing world food crisis, it should be doing much more to realise the potential offered by its own farmers and growers. Read

Anwen Francis

Nicola finds a new partner for Beijing

WELSH dressage star Nicola Tustain has started her Beijing Paralympic campaign in earnest. Read

Brian Lee

Stallion Needle Gun could be sharpest around

DAVID BRACE, who is well known in horse-racing circles, is the proud owner of Needle Gun, a top-class stallion who is standing at his Dunraven Stud, Llanmihangel Farm, near Bridgend. Read

Wendy Johnson

Early birds will catch the dawn chorus...

IF you sleep with the bedroom windows open, you’ll already be well aware that the dawn chorus is in full swing. By the time the sun rises each morning – currently just before 6am – little feathered alarm clocks in gardens and parks all around the UK have already begun singing. Read

Jonathan Evans MEP

Leth them do what they do best

LET farmers produce food. That’s what my Conservative colleagues and I have called for in the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, last week. Read

Moc Morgan

Take a leaf out of Dai’s book

ONE always derives a certain amount of pleasure after succeeding in doing something in the correct way. The old adage “practice makes master” is often quoted and doing something in the right way does bring its benefits. Read

Anwen Francis

Horse show gets ready to a take a leap

ONE of Wales’s largest show jumping events will take place on the outskirts of Cardigan next weekend – at the same time as the Barley Saturday Stallion Show and Parade in the town centre. Read

Moc Morgan

More youngsters are reeled in by the lure of fishing taster days

THE numbers of young people taking up fishing had declined in the last few decades but thankfully this seems to have been arrested and the graph line is once again pointing upwards. Read

Maureen Lloyd

Early race meeting blessed with sun

WALES & Borders are the only race promoters holding harness racing meetings in Britain so early in the season, and they were rewarded on Sunday at the Tairgwaith all-weather track with a glorious day of sunshine, with good competitive racing and some exceedingly close finishes. Read

Brian Lee

Brilliant Rhys wins Grand National on Little Ed

EDDIE FORD’S Little Ed, brilliantly ridden by Rhys Hughes, landed the Welsh Point-To-Point Grand National Volkswagen Touareg Men’s Open Race at the rainsoaked Pentyrch Hunt Steeplechases. Read

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