Young farmer Tomos Allison's dedication and technical support to the dairy industry in West Wales has helped him reap this year's Farmers' Union of Wales Pembrokeshire branch's Countryside Award.
Tomos, 31, of Sychpant, Rhoshill, Cardigan, was born and raised on a dairy farm and has spent all his life in the agricultural industry. He read applied electrical engineering at Bath University and then returned to the area to pursue his interest in computers and help install and maintain robotic milking systems.
He lives with his parents and brother on the 400-acre family farm with its herd of 170 dairy cows. He also works closely with local vets to maintain computer links between them and herd health schemes used by their farm clients.
One of the judges, FUW county president Dafydd Williams said: "Tomos Allison is clearly very able technically. What he offers obviously provides an essential and profit generating service for modern dairy farmers. He clearly demonstrated an ability to think ahead and identify novel methods of dealing with problems.
"He has developed a system that, for example, records the cows' temperature during milking and creates a report at the end of the milking session which highlights cows with higher than normal temperatures.
This data is then accessed by the vet and alerts them to cows who could possibly be suffering from mastitis. In this way the animal can be treated before any serious signs become visible."
Tomos said: "It is an honour to be presented with this award. Living on my parents' farm I can see the day-to-day struggles they face in the milking parlour and how hard they have to work. I wanted to make their life a bit easier.
"All of the computer programmes I develop are tested on the family farm first. Technology is a tool, no matter in what industry, which can and will improve things and allows farmers to be more proficient in many ways.
"We are all aware that money is tight in the farming industry and especially in the dairy sector. Farmers have to improve their on farm systems to ensure that the business is running as efficient as possible.
"Through new technology, such as herd management software, our farmers can save a lot of time. If you have to enter every bit of information manually it is a very labour intensive process, but with the new software we can streamline the process.
"All of the information is stored in one place and the computer even alerts the farmers if there is a suspected problem."
Tomos was nominated for the Countryside Award by the Nevern Show Committee who stated: "Tomos continues to work on new technology to improve rural businesses and is involved in installing robotic milking parlours. He helps many local businesses and individuals with their IT.
"These are farming businesses, veterinary practices etc. This includes updating and improving computer systems, updating and networking, advising on fire-walls etc.
"In 2010 he also served as the youngest chairman of Nevern Show and has been involved in supporting the Show over many years. He is currently working on a new web-site for us.
"We feel that he is a very worthy candidate for this award."