ALMOST as many people make a living from the milk industry in Pembrokeshire as are employed in the Welsh steel industry.

Speaking at the Royal Welsh Show, Farmers’ Union of Wales president, Glyn Roberts, used this fact to reflect a “clear imbalance’’ in political focus for support to these two industries.

“It is my aspiration and indeed it is the intention of the Farmers’ Union of Wales to change this,’’ he pledged.

“We want to see the value and importance of the rural economy truly recognised, and to build a visible and valued ‘Rural Powerhouse’ – not something that attracts industrial focus in a small geographical area, like the north-east Wales “powerhouse’’ built around foreign manufacturing; what is needed is recognition of the fact that 80% of our land mass is rural, that more than a third of Wales’ population live in rural areas, and that farming is the bedrock of our rural communities, without which vast direct and indirect contributions to Wales’ economy as a whole would disappear.’’

Mr Roberts criticised the north Pembrokeshire TB badger vaccination programme, suggesting that it had yielded “no results whatsoever’’.

He feared that Welsh farmers could lose important export trade with Europe if the government does not press ahead with a badger cull.

He suggested that bovine TB could be a barrier to Brexit trade negotiations if the Welsh government fails to demonstrate that it is doing everything in its power to tackle the disease in both cattle and wildlife.

Mr Roberts warned that Wales’s European competitors, specifically Ireland, could use the failure to introduce a badger cull as a weapon against future exports of Welsh produce into Europe.

“Until now we have had the cushion of free trade with the rest of Europe but we are in a different situation now.

“Our export trade post-Brexit will be very important, we need to be in a position of strength to negotiate. If we can’t show that we are doing everything possible to tackle TB, then this puts us in a weak position.’’

In the 12 months up to the end of April 2016, 8,932 cattle were slaughtered in Wales due to TB – a 41% increase on the previous 12 months.

But the Labour-led administration in Wales has steadfastly rejected calls from farmers to cull badgers, opting to vaccinate instead.

It has been suggested that it can no longer claim to have a vaccination policy because, due to a worldwide shortage of the BCG vaccine, it has stopped using it.

Wales’s rural affairs minister, Lesley Griffiths, this week offered a glimmer of hope when she confirmed she would make a statement in the autumn on the future direction of the eradication programme. “I am going to have a look at the scheme over the summer and will make a statement early in the new term,’’ she said. She insisted she was committed to a “science-led approach’’ but would not be drawn on whether badger culling could form part of that.

NFU Cymru president, Stephen James, is adamant it should. “We will be pushing the Welsh government hard to reduce numbers of badgers in TB endemic areas. We don’t have a problem with badgers, only diseased badgers,’’ he said.

“Vaccination is a prevention not a cure. Other areas of the world have shown that controlling the disease in wildlife is the way to do it.’’

Mr James said bovine TB cast a “lengthy shadow’’ across the beef and dairy sectors, with farming families in a state of despair and struggling under “enormous emotional and financial strain’’ when farm incomes and cash flow were already under pressure.