The Parade was a special celebration of HRH The Prince of Wales’ contribution to causes dedicated to the environment, sustainable agriculture and help for rural communities. In total, around 60 patronages came together in a unique and colourful parade highlighting their work and achievements to date.

Land Rover was proud to support the parade which had more than 450 people taking part from around 60 different charities based all over the United Kingdom. The parade also featured over 40 animals including horses, cows and sheep.

At the event, HRH The Prince of Wales met the five winners of this year’s The Prince’s Countryside Fund Land Rover Bursary – an initiative which has been running for five years.

As part of his tour of the show, HRH congratulated the recipients of the 2018 Bursary, which sees five rural entrepreneurs win the use of a Land Rover Discovery Commercial or Sport for a year, to help them further their rural business. HRH also met one of the 2017 winners, Jenny Dunstan, to hear about her experience of the bursary.

Open to 21 to 35‑year‑old rural entrepreneurs, the lucky winners have been selected from over 70 applications to win a 12‑month loan of either a Land Rover Discovery Sport or Discovery Commercial.

The new Discovery Commercial, which went on sale in December 2017, offers 1,856 litres of flexible load space accessed by a powered tailgate. Together with a 3.5 tonne towing capacity, the Discovery Commercial can haul loads over any terrain in all conditions.

Later this summer Land Rover will invite them to a special training day at one of the Land Rover Experience centres to familiarise them with the vehicles and teach them valuable, rural driving techniques.

The winners of The Prince’s Countryside Fund Land Rover Bursary 2018 are:

Abbie Westcott, Somerset

Abbie lives on her family farm in Somerset close to Exmoor National Park, where she has a herd of pedigree British blondes. After being diagnosed and suffering from a near fatal bout of Lyme disease, Abbie set up her business showing cattle. Her talent in this has allowed her to expand her business, using her skills to provide a production service to other breeders. Her success in the show ring with the cattle she produces allows her animals, and those she produces for other farmers, to conduct a higher price at market.  Her production business involves transporting the animals and equipment to shows, and she is also involved in presenting demonstrations and running promotional stands to encourage other young people to consider a career in agriculture.

On a daily basis she is involved in general husbandry responsibilities of her farm such as checking and feeding the animals. She also travels around the South West to meet with farmers, often carrying a lot of equipment, and so the use of a 4x4 will allow her to get around far more easily – currently she has to abandon her small hatchback and hike across fields with everything she needs to reach her clients.

Gruffydd Rees, Gwenyn Gruffydd

Gwenyn Gruffydd was founded in 2010 when Gruffydd Rees decided to follow his dream of keeping bees.  The one hive in the back of his parent’s garden quickly multiplied into around 70 hives, dotted around several locations in Carmarthenshire nearly eight years on. In 2017 Mêl Gwenyn Gruffydd (Gwenyn Gruffydd’s honey) was awarded with a 2* Great Taste Award which has since seen a surge in interest and demand for the product. In 2015 Gruffydd and his wife purchased a smallholding on the outskirts of the village of Dryslwyn in the picturesque Towy valley where they have been steadily growing their Farm Assured smallholding managing a flock of around 40 commercial breed sheep, five hand reared first dairy cross heifers which will hopefully calve for the first time this autumn and a further four hand reared calves. On top of all this Gruff is very passionate about looking after the countryside and promoting the tourism opportunities in his County by working part time for the Local Authority as a Countryside Ranger. The vehicle will help Gruffydd transport his bees weekly around the area and distribute his products to local outlets.

Andrew McGregor, Lanarkshire

Andrew is currently Chairman of Lanarkshire District Young Farmers and Vice Chairman of SAYFC’s Agri and Rural Affairs Group. He is leading the creation of a new competition called ‘Young Farmer of the Year’ and helping to organise the Rural Youth Europe Rally in Perthshire this summer. Through these roles he is passionate about being a role model to encourage more young people into agriculture.

Andrew lives on the family farm where his day to day responsibilities include all aspects of management of his 160 dairy cows i.e. milking, breeding, grass management, feeding, financial recording and breeding. As his main source of income, he is constantly looking for ways to increase the profitability of the business and has gained an incredible amount of knowledge and experience from being involved in a dairy benchmarking group. He is also a contract dairy farmer and the sole director and manager of his company AMCG Farming Ltd.

Ewetrack: Chris Puttick, Sam Hewett and William Groom

Ewetrack is an innovative GPS ear tag for sheep combining this technology with motion sensors to alert farmers instantly via their mobile phone if their animals present behaviour that might be the result of sheep worrying or rustling.

Sam Hewett graduated in 2015 from the Royal Agricultural University and also has experience working in Australia on a large beef unit understanding how cattle are farmed down under. Sam lives in Mells near Bath, and works as breeding and AI technician with Genus. Ewetrack was initially Sam's idea when the project first started two years ago.

William Groom graduated from the Royal Agricultural University in 2015 and has a family farm in Suffolk. After university Will secured a job with Keenan Alltech giving nutritional advice, and now works in Hampshire. He is also taking his MSc in animal nutrition later this year. Will is Ewetrack’s technical expert as he has a huge understanding of electrical engineering and coding.

Chris Puttick also graduated 2015 from the Royal Agricultural University. So far in his career he has worked for New Holland in Brussels and Italy in their marketing team before returning to the UK to work in Lincolnshire for a precision farming company called IPF where he looked after the software and variable rate technology, before starting his own AgTech consultancy business in 2017 called CAPAG.

Jack Flusk, Conversation Pigs Ltd

Jack is from Ashton‑in‑Makerfield just outside Wigan, and studied at Myerscough College. During his course he realised that there was a gap in the market of pigs being used for conservation purposes, and so started a pilot in Lancashire. He now has 80 pigs, and specialises in pedigree British Saddlebacks. His pigs are grazed on both private and public woodlands, including a country park which has over 500,000 visitors per year, with the pigs establishing themselves as an enormous attraction and educational resources.

The business’s main source of income comes from grazing management fees, paid to them for the services they provide and from the production of pedigree outdoor reared pork, which is sold through their own small farm shop and butchers. Jack carries out all the butchery in‑house, preparing sausages, dry‑cured bacon and other products. They also sell other local rare‑breed meats for the shop, and Jack’s pork business has been so successful they have had a waiting list on their products since January. The vehicle will be used to help move livestock around sites, to the abattoir and to collect carcasses afterwards in a refrigerated trailer, allowing Jack to expand his business.  It will also support the business in educational activities including attending local shows and markets promoting the work of the pigs and the products produced.