A promising young farmer was the best baa none in a new competition to find Reaseheath College’s Young Shepherd of the Year.
Guto Jones, 17, clinched the title in a contest held during the Nantwich college’s popular Family Festival.
Students had to prove they had all round skills to make a successful commercial shepherd.
They completed challenges like sheep shearing, health care, stock judging, vehicle handling and written questions.
Guto narrowly beat fellow student Callum Pitchford into second place.
He was presented with the inaugural trophy, sponsored by HJ Lea Oakes, livestock feed suppliers to the college farm.
The competition followed the format of an annual event run by the National Sheep Association (NSA) to find the country’s most talented young farmers.
It was judged to the same exacting standards by Reaseheath’s sheep unit manager Matthew Bagley, lecturers Phil Gibbon and Graham Ashford and tutor James Bickerton.
Guto, from mid Wales, is a first year student and will spend next year on work experience in the west Midlands before returning to Reaseheath for his final year.
He said: “It was a new experience and it was really good fun. I’m enjoying my course because I can try out things which I wouldn’t be doing at home.”
(Pic: Reaseheath’s Young Shepherd of the Year Guto Jones and sheep unit manager Matthew Bagley)
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