Farmers will compete for Royal Welsh buildings award
Many farmers throughout Wales have designed and erected innovative buildings to modernise systems of housing and handling livestock or to manage the treatment and storage of cereal crops. Old and traditional farm buildings, some of which have been features of the landscape for centuries, have also been carefully adapted to meet the demands of changing systems and new technologies without damaging their external characteristics and appearance.
The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s Farm Buildings and Works competition has encouraged farmers in their endeavours to build or convert buildings to the highest standards of design and construction. The competition is held in a different Welsh county each year and a different theme is usually adopted. This year it is the turn of Breconshire, the feature county at the 2012 Royal Welsh Show, to compete for the prize of the coveted Peniarth Estate Silver Trowel and the chosen theme is the building, or buildings, which best incorporate the farming needs of the 21st century.
The judges will not be looking for elaborate schemes but for the integration of new buildings within the existing farmstead if appropriate, both in terms of efficiency and visual appearance. When making their inspection they will attach importance to innovations involving the use of materials from other industries which have been adapted or modified for use on the farm and also to designs which are specifically meant to avoid or significantly reduce the pollution of soil, water or air.
There will be no limitations on the size of the farm or holding taking part in the competition and no bias in favour of the amount of capital spent on the improvement. Small schemes will have equal chance with large ones.
Entries for the competition close on March 23 2012 and although any scheme submitted must be located in Breconshire the owner may live elsewhere. In fact, they need not necessarily be either the owner or occupier but, if neither, they must obtain the owner’s or occupier’s consent to nominate the scheme and also declare their interest in the entry.
Four farms will go forward for final assessment and will be visited by the judges in May.
The Peniarth Estate Silver Trowel was given by the late Col John Williams-Wynne, a former chairman of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society Council and President of the society in 1968. It will be presented to the winner together with a certificate and prize card at the Royal Welsh Show in July.
top print