David Powell was yesterday (Thursday 17 June) awarded the Outstanding contribution to farming award at the Herefordshire Food and Farming Awards. This was on top of winning the best cattle farmer award at this years event. 

The event, which had to hosted online for the second year running, is a celebration of Herefordshire’s proud agricultural heritage. Recognising all the hard work carried out day in and day out across the county, not only in helping feed the people of Herefordshire but the nation and beyond.

To make the award even more special, it was presented to him, via a covid-secure video link, by Ruth Moss, the CRT’s Wildlife Monitoring Officer for Herefordshire, who just happened to be one of the judges.

“I was delighted to be able to announce that David has won the award. I know how important his cattle are to him and how he has dedicated his life to his farm and its wildlife. This award is the perfect recognition of all his hard work.”

David Powell, aged 88, has been producing high quality beef from his prize-winning traditional pedigree Hereford cattle at Awnell’s Farm all his life. He has won many awards in this time including three reserve championships at the National Smithfield Show. David is most proud of his oldest cow, Prunella, who has lived for 20 years, producing 14 exceptional calves.

David very kindly gifted Awnell’s Farm to the CRT in 2000 but retained the right to continue living and farming it for as long as he wished. The 220-acre grassland farm has a closed herd of traditional Hereford cattle with an ancestry dating back over 170 years.