The £1,000 winner of the Farmers' Union of Wales bursary for further education students is hoping his success will lead to a face-to-face meeting with natural resources and food minister Alun Davies.
"I would take the opportunity to convey my enthusiasm for agriculture and question the Government’s plans to change the single farm payment scheme," farmer's son and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor Glynllifon agriculture student Huw Milwyn Lewis said.
As part of his bursary application 17-year-old Huw, who lives on the family farm at Sarnau Fawr Farm, Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, near Aberystwyth, submitted a 1,500-word essay on how he will utilise the skills he has learnt at college in his future career.
"Winning this bursary will certainly develop my self-confidence and give me the motivation to work on my future plans for the farm.
"To be known as a winner of a national bursary would also give me a unique status and good publicity for enthusiastic young farmers like myself.
"The financial prize is an added bonus and I will carefully plan how to invest the money in developing the Welsh Mountain ram breeding (Tregaron breed) programme.
"I would like to establish myself within the Welsh Mountain Sheep Society (Tregaron) and winning the bursary will be a way of getting the initial recognition within the group.
"I will ask my parents for 20 ewes from our Welsh mountain flock and, after studying the breed’s genetics in detail, I intend to invest the money in buying a ram of the highest quality to form my own flock.
"This would be the starting point of my own flock that I would nurture and develop with pride."
The £500 bursary runner-up, farmers's son Huw Carwyn Jones, of Ty Hen Newydd, Coedana, Llanerchymedd, Anglesey - another farmer's son studying agriculture at Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor Glynllifon - submitted a photo essay about his experiences during a month's work experience near Stirling in Scotland.
He worked at the 3,000-acre Westerton of Cowrie enterprise comprising 14 separate farms running 250 pedigree Limousins and 100 Limousins cross Belgian Blues and selling around 40 bulls a year.
"As we have a relatively small farm, I’m aware that I will have to look for full time work outside our farm. So, I’m determined to learn as much as I can and my time at Glynllifon is the basis for this.
"I will be continuing my studies at Aberystwyth University in September. I’m aware that agriculture, like every other business, is very competitive so every experience and opportunity should be taken advantage of.
"As I have already been accepted for an agriculture degree course at Aberystwyth in September, my intention is to use the bursary money to buy a laptop for my studies.
"My IT skills are good and a laptop would give my work a more professional look as I don’t own a laptop at the moment. The look of whatever you’re producing is important, whether it's coursework or an animal."
Selection panel chairman Alun Edwards said: "I would like to thank all the students who have entered this year's further education student bursary. The standard was once again very high.
"In this day and age it is even more important that further education gets this attention and it is a great opportunity for the FUW to raise the profile of further education and also strengthen our link with young people.
"These are the hands-on farmers of the future that have a strong business sense and realise that measurable skills and knowledge need to be applied to future proof their family business," Mr Edwards, chairman of the union’s agricultural and education committee added.
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(from left) Alun Edwards, selection panel member and FUW Ceredigion county executive officer Caryl Wyn-Jones, Huw Milwyn Lewis, Huw Carwyn Jones and panel member and FUW deputy president Glyn Roberts.[/caption]