With this year’s theme focusing on veterinary skills within the farm animal and equine sector, the winner of this year’s Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s Dr Emrys Evans Award has been announced.

The winner was revealed this week as Thomas Searle, from Glamorgan.

This year’s 10 candidates for the award, kindly sponsored by Mrs Mair Evans, were judged on a range of skills including displaying innovative or fresh approaches to improving the health and welfare of animals, diagnosing disease, advising on preventative measures, assessing biosecurity risks, and communication and engagement with the wider industry.

“We can be justifiably proud of this generation of veterinary surgeons in Wales and can take comfort that the future of our livestock sector in sin safe veterinary hands” said judges, Dr Ifan Lloyd MRCVS and Mr Hugh T Williams MRCVS.

Though the marks awarded to each nominee were tightly clustered, the decision to award Thomas Searle as the worthy winner of the 2024 Dr Emrys Evans Award was unanimous.

Thomas, who currently works at South Wales Farm Vets, excelled in each of the competition themes. He has been the driving force behind the practice’s establishment of advanced sheep and goat breeding services, which weren’t previously available in the county, a service which has allowed clients the opportunity to bring in new genetics from genetically superior animals to their flocks. He is also exploring the possibilities of making AI services more attractive to commercial flocks and the use of sexed semen for producing replacement ewes.

The competition highlighted how younger members of the veterinary profession are embracing advisory roles, such as preventative medicine and animal health planning to improve stock performance and resilience. It also showed their willingness to engage with a variety of animal health programmes in Wales, such as Arwain DGC, Farming Connect programmes and the Sheep Scab eradication scheme, Gwaredu Scab. The judges also noted that may of the nominees have studied for higher qualification s in farm animal medicine, “which will further enhance veterinary skills to meet ongoing needs and challenges in the sector”.

A certificate and medal was presented on Monday, July 22 at the Royal Welsh Show in memory of Dr Emrys Evans, a Royal Welsh gold medalist and chairman of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s board of directors, who died on the eve of the centenary show in 2004.