Date set for Pembrokeshire County Show 2023 & thanks given to all those who supported this year’s event

The date has been set for Wales’ largest county agricultural show, Pembrokeshire County Show in 2023. The event will take place on 16 and 17 August at Pembrokeshire County Showground in Haverfordwest.

Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society would like to thank all those who supported this year’s event, which took place last month. The Society praised the hard work of the huge army of volunteers, without whom it would not have been possible to hold the Show. 

Mansel Raymond, Pembrokeshire County Show President, said, “Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the Show. It was pleasing to see how the public respected the showground. We had to rely heavily on the time and contribution of volunteers to organise and manage this year’s Show after the difficult period the Society faced as a result of the Pandemic. We have learnt a lot from this year’s Show with a new team at the helm and we will take on board everything we have learnt when it comes to organising the event for next year.”

Award winners at this year’s Pembrokeshire County Show included: 

Baron de Rutzen Award Those under the age of 45 who farm in Pembrokeshire and could demonstrate their farm’s use of the latest technological methods to promote progressive, sustainable agriculture were encouraged to enter the prestigious Baron de Rutzen Award. The winner was Michael Williams, a dairy farmer from Puncheston. He farms conventionally using regenerative farming practices. His emphasis is longevity of herd and sustainability of on-farm food production using low inputs and low disturbance methods. Producing food and enhancing the environment to make for happy cows. Michael is signed up to the Regenerative Farming Plan with a net zero commitment by 2040.

Student Bursary Award of £1,000 was awarded to Sophie Rees from Milford Haven. The £1,000 bursary is open annually to all qualifying students studying agriculture, veterinary science, agricultural engineering, food technology, forestry or other subjects clearly allied to agriculture. Sophie is currently studying Veterinary Medicine at the Royal Veterinary college. She works on a sheep farm in St. Davids when she is home from her studies to help with shearing, worming and tupping as well as having recently finished her lambing second lambing placement there.

Ambassador for 2023 to help support officeholders in promoting and meeting the aims of the Society. The role was awarded to two applicants this year – Luke Watts from Martletwy and Betsan Williams from Llangolman. In his application Luke said he wants to get more primary aged children from the county involved with the Show to help them understand the importance of agriculture and the strength of Pembrokeshire’s farming community. Betsan will use her position to try and get as many local businesses (small and large) to exhibit their produce at the Show in future.

Long Service Award – Farm and estate workers from Pembrokeshire, who have been employed on the land for 25 years or more, could be nominated for this Award. There were six recipients for the inscribed Awards: Paul McManamon; Geoffrey Davies; Anthony Vaughan; Richard Davies; John Race and Michael Kurtz.

The next event to be held on the Showground will be the Christmas Fair which takes place on Sunday, 11 December 2023 between 10am and 4pm. There will be gift and craft stalls, food and drink, festive music and a Santa’s Grotto. Admission is Free.

Full details of all Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society’s events are available on the website: www.pembsshow.org and for up-to-date details follow Pembrokeshire County Show on facebook, twitter or Instagram.