Regarding your story ‘Plaid says the six-day standstill law must go’.

Farm incomes in Wales dropped by 44 per cent last year, while the Welsh Government’s decision to cut the amount of money paid directly to farmers by 15 per cent has made things worse.

This, on top of the 10 per cent cut to the agriculture budget that the Labour and Tory parties supported at an EU level, has increased the pressure on farm incomes.

They are dancing to a UKIP tune which, if followed and we were pulled out of the European Union, would be disastrous for farms, the countryside and the rural economy.

Excessive bureaucracy and red tape mean that farmers face significant constraints on what they can and cannot do, which makes it even more difficult for them to respond to the challenges they face.

Compare this record to when Plaid Cymru was in government where we had a Rural Affairs Minister in the Welsh cabinet standing up for Welsh farms and the countryside.

The Party of Wales would encourage procurement to put greater emphasis on environmental considerations to encourage the public sector to source local milk and dairy produce.

One important distinction between Plaid Cymru and the Labour Welsh Government’s approach is their proposals to introduce a table valuation system for bovine TB valuation.

The system proposed will mean that poor quality animals will be overvalued, whilst good quality animals will be undervalued.

Reforms introduced by a Party of Wales-run Welsh Government would be improvements to develop supply chains that can minimise the volatility faced by the sector and to the red meat levy to change the point at which the levy is collected.

This would mean money collected on Welsh livestock goes towards promoting the red meat industry in Wales.

SIMON THOMAS Mid and West Assembly Member Plaid Cymru – Party of Wales