Farmers Weekly Awards 2024: Ag Student of the Year

Logan Williams from Tirmynydd, Carmarthenshire, is Farmers Weekly Ag Student of the Year 2024.

He just stands out – his dissertation tutor said it, his results demonstrate it, and the judges all witnessed it from reading his application to interviewing him.

He’s an all-rounder, passionate to the core about the Welsh and British agricultural sectors, who is currently starting a career in the food supply chain alongside running his family’s sheep farm.

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards 2024: Ag Student of the Year finalists

Achievements

Academic ability is only one aspect of judging Ag Student of the Year, but it is something Logan has excelled at through school and university.

Elected head boy at secondary school, Logan left with four A-stars at A-level and has gone on to secure a first-class degree in Agriculture with Animal Science.

His dissertation, looking at factors  affecting lamb performance in the finishing period, was the highest scoring project in his cohort and received an award from the Texel Sheep Society.

Alongside university, he has been helping run the farm at home and trialling sheepdogs internationally.

Logan describes himself as methodical, and he would have been able to achieve what he has in the past three years without that trait.

“Our home farm was a dairy farm two decades ago but since then, it was not in much commercial operation for years until we moved there a decade ago,” says Logan.

“Both of my parents work full-time away from the farm, and I am fortunate that Dad has left me in charge of the day-to-day operations, as well as steering the direction of our farm business into the future.”

“The sheepdogs also provide a diversification to increase farm profits and I plan to continue to compete at sheepdog trials as well as providing on-farm tuition lessons as a service for individuals who wish to learn how to train their sheepdogs.”

Having had his first taste of representing Wales at the World Sheepdog Trials in the Netherlands in 2017, Logan was placed 23rd out of 240 at the 2023 World Sheepdog Trials in Ireland last autumn with his bitch, Pip.

Keeping track

A big fan of lists, Logan has had to constantly plan and prioritise to ensure he can stay on top of the demands of the farm, the sheepdogs and his degree course.

Farm work would often be done in early mornings, evenings and weekends to fit in around lectures, never compromising on attendance.

“I can’t remember a livestock production lecture that Logan hasn’t been in,” says Manod Williams, one of his university tutors.

Manod said in his 11 years at Aberystwyth, he has never seen results quite like it, as Logan secured a first-class mark in 17 of the 19 modules he studied.

Not only is his knowledge of the sector as broad as it is thorough, but he is very good at communicating too.

Awarded 88/100 for the presentation of a research paper to lecturers and fellow students, Logan is not loud, but is able to confidently disseminate information and express views on the direction of agriculture, and is passionate about its sustainability.

This will be undoubtedly useful as he gets stuck into his graduate role in the agriculture team at Dunbia, liaising with retailers and farmers.