December 2025
Hello and welcome to the December Newsletter. I hope you are all keeping warm – we’ve had some pretty chilly days, coming as a bit of a shock after all that warm wet weather. I think that all the acorns have now dropped – worth being vigilant if you are changing grazing etc.
Lots and lots of thanks to everyone who came and supported our charity evening on 8th November. Particular thanks to Tom Jenkins and Elliot Rees who both donated their time and skills for free. People were extremely generous in their donations for the raffle and auction, and then extremely generous in their raffle ticket buying and auction bids! A staggering £8500 was raised for the Sir Gareth Edwards Cancer Charity and on the night, Sir Gareth’s daughter in law Eirlys, who runs the charity, told us a little bit about the people, aged 15-35, struggling with the costs of their cancer diagnosis, giving examples of some people they have recently helped. I’m sure that these real life stories encouraged even more generosity. And hopefully, those of you who came, enjoyed yourselves. There was a great atmosphere.
We are, of course, available all over the Christmas holiday period, on the usual number. Hours will vary a little here and there (see later), please be organized for drug ordering and collection. December TB testing will have to be squashed into two weeks only – again, please be organized and book ahead. You know that we will do our best.
All that remains is to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and healthy New Year. I hope that you all manage to enjoy some time with family and friends.
Charity Night
A few photos from the night
What can we say – what a night!
We all had a great time and hope you did too. The total raised is amazing, over £8500 for the Sir Gareth Edwards Cancer Charity. Sir Gareth Edwards and his family have been in touch to thank everyone for an incredible evening, the amount raised far exceeded their expectations (and ours). So, a huge thank you to everyone who came, and/or donated, helping to make it such a success.
Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS)
Three words we know you don’t want to hear, but it starts in January. With this in mind Russell and I attended CPD in November to find out what’s involved from the veterinary perspective.
A vet needs to do the Animal Health Improvement Cycle (AHIC) and biosecurity assessment component of the SFS for any livestock farms. The AHIC must be delivered by the veterinary practice with the animals under their 24-hour care and responsible for all prescription medicines. The AHIC will be applicable to all farms where livestock are reared or farmed to produce food or goods. This would exclude a small number of premises, such as petting zoos.
The biosecurity assessment must be done annually with the vet. The farmer must complete mobility and body condition scoring proficiency training, which is to be undertaken at least once every five years per livestock class kept. Herd / flock body condition and mobility scoring should be completed annually with records kept.
The AHIC itself involves 4 steps-measure, plan, act and review. This translates as the vet coming out for a chat to identify an area of livestock management that you would like to improve (Production Health Metric – PHM). Once this is chosen, we need to collect information to measure your current performance e.g. growth rates in beef youngstock or the number of lame sheep. Together, we have to come up with a plan for how to improve performance in this area, and once the changes are made, measure the performance again. This whole cycle needs to be started during 2026, and completed within 12 months.
The AHIC is ongoing – you will need to do at least one PHM per species, every year, to remain compliant.
Being Farm Assured doesn’t affect the need to do the AHIC, although there may appear to be some overlap between the schemes. Farming Connect are offering advice and support and you can contact us at the surgery for more information plus you can find more information online
www.gov.wales/sustainable-farming-scheme-frequently-asked-questions-html#177852
This month’s author is Sian, for further information on AHICs speak to her, Mary or Russell.
Medicines meeting
5 years ago we ran a medicines meeting outside in the buildings at Maes Y Ward, as it was during COVID restrictions. The meeting covered CPD requirements for Red Tractor and therefore our dairy farmers. Recently some of the attendees have contacted us to say that Red Tractor have told them that this training has expired and will we be running another course? The course is funded by Farming Connect and therefore free to attend for Farming Connect registered clients. It would also qualify as CPD as required for the SFS. In order to run the course we need sufficient numbers to qualify. Normally we expect the medicines course to take around 2.5 hours, depending on questions and audience participation. We would be aiming to run it in the New Year.
Please contact the office if you are interested and if we get sufficient numbers we will get in touch with you to organise a date.
Christmas opening hours
Dec 24th: 8.30am-early closure**
Dec 25th-28th: Emergencies only
Dec 29th & 30th: 8.30am-5.30pm
Dec 31st: 8.30am- early closure**
Jan 1st: Emergencies only
Jan 2nd: 8-30am-5.30pm
** Ensure medicines are ordered and collected before 1pm due to early closing
Please note that the Bank Holidays mean that we are unable to TB test at all Christmas week and that we have limited testing slots available the week of New Year.
Please make note of our new email address info@swfv.uk
