Farmers' Union of Wales president Bob Parry put the suggestion to Agriculture Minister Nick Brown.

Mr Parry believes that donating animals free of charge would help ease the crisis facing farmers in Wales, where the market for ewes has vanished, and would also provide welcome aid to Kosovo.

The idea is part of a 10-point action plan to help ease the farming crisis in Wales.

Welsh farmers are desperately seeking a solution to the disposal of cull ewes they cannot afford to keep or to get rid of.

BBC Wales' Peter Johnson speaks to NFU president Ben Gill

However, Ben Gill, president of the National Farmers' Union, said a scheme for transporting sheep to Kosovo would be difficult to operate.

Mr Gill, who is meeting Mr Brown in London on Thursday afternoon, said the FUW idea would only provide a short-term solution to the "enormous" problems facing Welsh farmers.

Mr Brown has blamed farmers' overproduction for the current crisis and he has ruled out extra money to help the industry in Wales.

He believes such a scheme would not be allowed under European Union rules.

But the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly have indicated they are seriously considering emergency aid for sheep farmers.

The NFU said earlier this week that farm incomes had fallen by 73% over the past two years.

Abattoir costs

Every livestock sector - including beef, sheep, dairy and poultry - has seen production costs outweigh prices received at the farm gate for produce, said the union.

The problem has been blamed on a number of factors including increased inspection and abattoir costs, bureaucracy, the strength of sterling, the BSE crisis and the collapse of important export markets such as Russia's.

Mr Gill described the costs issue as fundamental to the problems farmers face.

"The reality is a tax in the form of inspections and bureaucratic nonsense," said Mr Gill.

Prices for livestock plummeted last year, so farmers held on to their lambs and calves, and this year there is a backlog of tens of thousands of animals on farms which say they cannot afford to keep them.

Welsh farmers have been dumping dozens of calves and ewes in telephone boxes and leaving them with the RSPCA in protest.