IT’S been a Royal Welsh Show to remember for most of us who have attended, with the event returning after a three-year hiatus due to Covid-19 – but the show will surely live longer in the memory for one Radnorshire university student.

On Tuesday, July 19, the award for the best student of agriculture at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University, was won by Mollie Hooper, from Cascob, near Presteigne.

Each year the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (RWAS) presents promising students and rising stars with awards and scholarships which recognise their talent and pay tribute to their enthusiasm and dedication to Welsh agriculture.

Among the students presented with their awards at the Royal Welsh Show at Tuesday’s awards ceremony was Mollie, 21, who received the IBERS Student Award.

Mollie has just completed her FDSc in agriculture, a two-year foundation degree that is taught by leading experts and researchers in their field in a department renowned for agricultural innovation.

She currently works part-time on a large free range poultry unit which involves packing eggs for both wholesale and retail, as well as monitoring the health and welfare of 40,000 hens.

Mollie also manages her own flock of sheep and a small herd of pedigree cows, and helps out on local farms, assisting with lambing, flock management and wool handling.