FARMING is becoming so much a memory of former times which were better than the present.
Last week I attended a meeting in Llanrwst, so instead of taking the faster route via the A55 Expressway I took the more direct route over the hills.
It is some years since I travelled this route towards the towering peaks of Snowdonia, but it has its advantages on a nice day as you can still enjoy the pleasures of motoring without the distraction of boy-racers and speed cameras.
There have been dramatic changes in farming practices since that time more than 30 years ago.
Where have all the cattle gone, I wonder?
Whereas there are a few herds still scattered about, the most dramatic absence is people in the countryside.
There is an almost total absence of anybody who might be seen to be working on the land these days; even a parked tractor is a rarity.
Farming used to involve whole communities working on the land
I tried to fathom the big change that has taken place and then realised that there was a keen sense of optimism in the future prospects for farming during the 1960s, and whilst the number of farm workers was reducing there was dramatic work being done in land reclamation and new farm buildings.
Nowadays you just see a museum of former times.
It seems remarkable that nearly all the improved grassland is still maintained, and whilst there may be now fewer cattle there are a spattering of sheep and lambs all over the place.
You would not wish to say that they are intensively stocked though.
Life came back to earth when I reached Llanrwst. In a posh new building my fellow meeting attendees spent much time trying to identify what was the rural area in North Wales.
I naturally assumed that a rural area is predominantly agricultural and that farming is its basic industry, but not so in today's world where agriculture is a dirty word and the Prime Minister probably still thinks that farmers are some form of rural insurgent.
I don't think he was ever to forgive the farmers in North Wales for the part which they played in throwing beef burgers into the harbour at Holyhead and blockading the oil refinery at Stanlow.
All this nonsense we hear about tourism replacing agriculture and the production of food surpluses in the rural area is misplaced because I did not see a single tourist of any sort.
However, one note of optimism is that there are now probably nearly as many horses as cattle in such a beautiful area of Welsh countryside.
