Starlings

FITNESS group Starlings has celebrated its second birthday (see picture).

Starlings was established from a base of local health conscious members who had initially been referred to exercise classes by their GP.With the help of their instructor, Laureen Pope, they set up their own club, running sports activities and social events. Their motto is ‘Have fun and keep moving.‘The group has offered opportunities for swimming, country dancing, bowls, walking basketball, table tennis and badminton to name but a few, along with socialising at a fish and chip supper and the very popular Christmas party, run by members.

Rotary Club

AT THIS week’s meeting, club president John Harries introduced one of his former students at the Welsh Agricultural College as the speaker.Dewi Jones, following his studies at the college, pursued post-grad-uate work in New Zealand before returning to the Institute of Rural Studies in 1991.For the next 10 years he led a range of ground-breaking sheep research projects funded by the EU and the then Welsh Office.He went on to establish a spin-off company from the university, CBS Technology, which was one of the most successful spinout enterprises to emerge from AU.The company merged with two others in 2004 to create Innovis which, due to Dewi’s foresight, innovation and hard work as CEO, has developed an excellent record worldwide for livestock breeding research and development.The speaker said that in the UK sheep industry there were 13 million breeding ewes owned by 70,000 farmers.They were heavily dependent on EU subsidies to maintain a modest profitability.Business planning and cost analysis were rarely practiced and there was a complete disconnection between pedigree breeding and the commercial meat sector – some 10 to 15 per cent was wasted on supermarket shelves.There was a need to produce more food with genetic improvement a key catalyst to enable greater production.Sheep are relatively small animals with a lower meat yield per carcass compared with pigs and chickens and also a lower reproductive rate. But sheep were very effective uti-lisers of grassland and metabolising protein from land areas where no other species can.The mission of Innovis under its new title – Animal Breeding Europe – was to become the global leader in sheep breeding and in the next five years to grow by 25 per cent per annum in sheep genetic sales.In giving the vote of thanks, Colin Eagles said Dewi had given a deep insight into the sheep industry and how to run a business.Set out a viable business model and you will deliver more succulent lamb at a cheaper price.

Stroke Club

FOR A belated St David’s Day luncheon, 45 members of the club arrived at the town’s football club on 16 March. The chairman, John Lewis Jones, welcomed all and greeted a new member, Mr Ralphs, and then said grace before the group sat down to enjoy a lovely cawl, followed by sweets.Whilst tea and coffee was being handed round, the ever popular 600 club numbers were drawn and the corresponding cheques written. Then Jean Davies and Judith Kendall proceeded to do the raffle with great skill.Lots of lovely prizes were doled out and then afterwards, the chairman gave thanks to the staff for a splendid lunch.The social secretary reminded all that there were still some places available for the June holiday.

Wildlife Trust

THE MARCH meeting of the North Ceredigion Section of the Wildlife Trust South and West Wales took place on Monday, 7 March, in the Hugh Owen building at Aberystwyth University.With chairman John Wildig unable to attend, the chair was taken by Dr Fiona Corke.After the usual business, including a report on activities in the Trust’s Ceredigion Reserves and an update on recent sightings and items of interest from the members, Fiona warmly welcomed Dr Pippa Moore, a marine ecologist from IBERS, who gave a talk on observed and future effects of climate warming on marine biodiversity.Pippa is part of an international consortium of researchers using globally collected data to model future scenarios resulting from climate change.The oceans are warming, albeit not as rapidly as the landmasses and many maritime species (both animal and algae) are being forced to move their range to remain in a tempera-ture environment for which they are adapted.In the northern hemisphere there are semi-continuous landmasses extending right into the Arctic Circle allowing coastal living organisms the chance to move to cooler waters as the seas warm.A sobering fact that Pippa high-lighted was that many of the unique species found around the coast of Australia have no landmass coast to move their range into (except the Antarctic).Pippa also touched on the impor-tance of ‘citizen science’ undertaken by volunteers.Many members of the audience are involved in this type of work, through their detailed recording of wildlife signs and sightings.There is no indoor meeting of the section in April, but on Saturday, 2 April, there will be a walk on Cader Idris to look for purple saxifrage.

U3A

THE AGM was held on 17 March and attended by a satisfactory proportion of the membership. The business part of the meeting proceeded with its customary efficiency and reports from the chairman and treasurer underlined the healthy state of the organisation.Membership is increasing, as is the number and popularity of the various subject groups.After the successful report on the state of this society, members were entertained by what has become a traditional quiz.This year it contained 19 questions, ranging from natural history to geography and bird identification to architecture.There were two winning groups, both proudly proclaiming their achievement of 16 correct answers.

The meeting concluded with the usual tea and biscuits.The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 21 April, at the Morlan at 2.30pm when the speaker will be Philip Henry Jones on ‘1816: The year without a summer’.

Choral Society

ON SATURDAY, 5 March, the society held a coffee morning in the Waunfawr Community Hall.There was a range of stalls with some good bargains to be had and the morning was very well supported with over £400 raised for the society’s funds.

With the performance of Verdi’s choral and orchestral masterpiece, the Requiem, on Saturday, 23 April, in the Great Hall, getting ever closer, the next month will be an extremely busy one for the choristers. However, rehearsals continue to go well and music lovers can look forward to a splendid concert with the choir being joined by four professional soloists and full orchestra, under the baton of David Russell Hulme.