With the theme of shepherding skills, the winner of this year’s Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s Dr Emrys Evans Award is Dewi Jenkins from Talybont, Ceredigion.

This year there were seven candidates for the award, kindly sponsored by Harrison Clark Rickerbys Limited, all of whom were assessed on their skills in animal husbandry, veterinary record keeping, shearing ability, working with sheepdogs, preparing sheep for market/shows etc.

The judges

The judges commented on how difficult it was to pick a winner, but named Mr Jenkins as this year's winner based on his shepherding skills.

Mr Jenkins is also a show winner with this Welsh Mountain Sheep winning at local shows, county shows, and winning the Supreme Championship at the Royal Welsh Show and he prepares all his animals himself.

His well respected flock produces breeding rams which go on to command high prices at sales, with the highest average price two years running, showing that they are very much in demand.

An accomplished shearer, Mr Jenkins shears his own 800 ewe flock as well as flocks on neighbouring farms.

He enters shearing competitions at shows and for the last two years has reached the final of the Intermediate Class at the Royal Welsh Show.

A certificate and medal will be presented on Monday 24 July at the Royal Welsh Show in memory of Dr Emrys Evans, a Royal Welsh gold medalist and chairman of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s board of directors, who died on the eve of the centenary show in 2004.