A GWYNEDD farmer has been shortlisted for a major award.

As the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s flagship accolade, the Sir Bryner Jones Memorial Award is hotly contested year after year.

With exceptional entries from 10 counties across Wales, the judges have had a challenging task whittling it down to the four very worthy candidates.

Once again, the overall winner of this year’s coveted award will be kept under wraps until the Royal Welsh Show, where the shortlisted contenders and their families will attend the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society award presentations on the first day of the show to hear the winner announced for the first time.

Sir Bryner Jones helped shape the direction of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society for 50 years, was agricultural commissioner for Wales and subsequently became Welsh secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture.

He was President of the Royal Welsh in 1954, the society’s golden jubilee year.

One of the nominees this year is Sam Carey, from Llanfor.

Hailing from a dairy farm in north Pembrokeshire, Mr Carey attended Coleg Ceredgion after school, followed by four years at Harper Adams University, graduating in 2011.

For his sandwich training year, he worked as a full-time herdsman at a 600 dairy cow operation in Oxfordshire.

On graduation he worked on a large dairy farm in Arizona, USA and then a large beef and sheep farm in New Zealand.

These experiences consolidated his ambition and confirmed his interest in dairy cows.

The opportunity to return to the home farm was not an option. Inspired by his travels, Sam made contact with a number of influential farmers who were operating low cost grass based milk production systems.

One of these was Rhys Williams, who was operating a joint venture with farmer / landowner David Wynne Finch.

He secured a post as an assistant manager of their Padog Farms in Pentrefoelas in 2013.

During the two years he was at Padog Farms, Sam proved himself an extremely capable stock person and grassland manager.

His potential was noted by his employers whose support and mentoring he acknowledges fully.

In 2015 a new opportunity arose – the Price family of the Rhiwlas Estate, near Bala, were planning to set up a dairy unit.

Sam was able to bring into the partnership the finance to purchase a share of the 500 cows.

That finance was his own savings plus equity from Milkwell Ltd together with further bank borrowings.

The current partnership business extends to 650 acres, carrying 500 cows, 170 heifer calves and 170 bulling heifers.

Sam employs two people, plus some casual relief milkers and his focus is on cows, grass, people and finance.

Since 1957, the award has been made annually to someone from a different area of the farming industry who has reached the highest level of achievement in the chosen sector.

This year, the judges were looking an individual who has created a viable agricultural business through an initial tenancy, farm business tenancy (FBT), share farming or joint equity agreement.

“We thank the 10 exceptional individuals for sharing their farming journey with us.” remarked the judges, Martin Evans and Wynne Jones.

“The situations of the individual entrants were very diverse, the length of time they had been in their current businesses differed significantly and we needed to balance achievement with potential. A wide range of enterprises were evident.

“As such, whilst finding the task extremely enjoyable and informative, we were challenged to select a shortlist such was the genuine quality of the businesses we visited.

"We warmly congratulate all the applicants for their progress to date and will follow developments with interest.”

The winner will be announced at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society award presentations on the first day of the show, Monday, July 22, at 2.30pm.