TRIBUTE has been paid to a former president of the Carmarthenshire branch of the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW).

John Price, of Dafadfa Isaf, Gwynfe, near Llangadog, died, aged 72, at Glangwili Hospital, Carmarthen, on Tuesday, July 6.

He leaves his wife, two children and five grandchildren.

The funeral took place on Monday afternoon with a public service at Capel Maen, Gwynfe, followed by a cremation service at Llanelli Crematorium.

Family

Mr Price ran a 144-acre hill farm where he kept beef cattle and sheep. He also rented 66 acres of land and had grazing rights on the Black Mountain.

After leaving school in 1953, he worked on the family farm with his late father until 1968 when he went to assist with the running of the Earl of Ducie's estate in South Gloucestershire. He returned to Dafadfa Isaf in 1981.

Club chairman of Gwynfe YFC in 1960 and secretary of the East Carmarthen Lamb Group, he started taking part in FUW activities in 1983 when he became Carmarthenshire county delegate on the union's national livestock, wool and marts committee and maintained a regular attendance until his death.

He was the committee's chairman from 1991 to 1996, Carmarthenshire county executive committee vice- chairman and chairman from 1989 to 1993 and county president from 1993 to 1995.

Chairman

Between 1993 and 2004, he represented Carmarthenshire on the South Wales regional committee of the British Wool Marketing Board and served as its chairman in 1994/95. From 1991 to 2002, he was a member of the National Sheep Association's Wales committee.

Since 1993, Mr Price has been a member of the Wales Land Tribunal Panel and chairman of Gwynfe Show committee twice, 1997/98 and 2003 to date. In 2003, he was made an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies (ARAgS) for his contribution to farming and the rural community and became a Fellow in 2008. He was made an FUW life member in 2007.

"John's contribution to the FUW, agriculture and his local community has been exceptional and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him," said the union's Carmarthenshire county executive officer Meinir Bartlett.