Farmer of the Year: Judging takes place to pick the winner

After months of nominations, a panel of food and farming industry judges have come together to discuss who should win The Yorkshire Post's Farmer of the Year Award 2016.
Picture: Bruce RollinsonPicture: Bruce Rollinson
Picture: Bruce Rollinson

Some fantastic entries were received for the competition in its second year and so picking the winner was no easy decision.

In truth, all of our shortlisted entrants deserve to be celebrated, and they will be, at an award ceremony at the Great Yorkshire Show next month - when the overall winner will be revealed.

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Helping to judge the competition this year were some of the most influential industry figures in Yorkshire: Adam Bedford, the regional director for the York-based North East branch of the National Farmers’ Union; Judy Bell MBE, chairman of the region’s food group Deliciouslyorkshire; and Charles Mills, show director at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.

All three met with The Yorkshire Post at the Regional Agricultural Centre in Harrogate yesterday to pick through the entries which were sent in from all across the region.

In association with law firm Mills & Reeve, the award ultimately seeks to recognise a farmer from the region who goes the extra mile to extoll messages about how food is produced to the wider community.

The award ceremony will be held on the President’s Lawn of the Great Yorkshire Showground on the afternoon of the first day of this year’s show - Tuesday, July 12.

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It will culminate in the presentation of rosettes to the runners-up and a solid, burr oak trophy to the winner.

The trophy has been lovingly handcrafted by experienced Pateley Bridge-based wood carver John Hayton in North Yorkshire market town’s King Street Workshops.

The full list of shortlisted entrants who are in the running for this year’s Farmer of the Year Award will be revealed in this weekend’s edition of Country Week, available only in The Yorkshire Post on Saturday.