A number of young farmers from Powys were recipients of a travel scholarship to help them broaden their knowledge of agriculture.

This year’s Gareth Raw Rees Memorial Travel Scholarship awarded several young farmers from Powys and was presented at the at the Royal Welsh Show on Tuesday, July 25.

The scholarship, which is administered by NFU Cymru was set up in memory of the late Gareth Raw Rees, a delegate on the NFU Council and Chairman of the NFU Cymru Education Committee, who believed that travel was an important form of education for young people.

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This year’s main winner was William Davies, from Howey, near Llandrindod Wells, who received £1,000 to help fund his two-month study trip to the USA.

Thye 24-year-old is a graduate of Aberystwyth University and is heavily involved with his family’s beef and sheep enterprise alongside his contract shepherding business.

He said: “I hope to enhance my stockman skills from visiting ranches in Montana and Wyoming and to learn more about the USA’s red meat industry.

“I feel this will be invaluable as the marketing and production of red meat is constantly under scrutiny and it’s vital to have a well-rounded and educated understanding of worldwide production.

“This in turn not only helps at individual farm level but also helps future proof the red meat industry within the UK.”

Other recipients included Elizabeth Preston, from Presteigne. She received £700 towards a four-month trip to New Zealand. She is planning to visit dairy farms there to learn more about regenerative agriculture and how these principles could be applied here in Wales.

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She said: “I’m keen to learn more about how we can manage our soils, grassland, and natural habitats more holistically.

“I also want to develop my understanding of how we can increase food production in the face of more volatile weather patterns as well as increasing biodiversity in pastures and sequestering more carbon within our soils.

“My trip will give me the chance to compare different agricultural practices which will give me the knowledge to help develop my career within agriculture.”

Carys Dyke, a 19-year-old sheep and beef farmer from Howey, also received £700 and is also travelling to New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Swancott from Knighton will be heading to the Orkney Islands organised through the Wales YFC International Programme while Ella Harris, also from Knighton, will be attending the week-long Rural Youth Europe rally which will be held in Georgia in November.