Rural lawyer reveals the county’s best farmers

Eleven finalists of the 2015 Taste of Gloucestershire Food & Farming Awards were crowned winners at a black tie dinner last night attended by close to 300 representatives from the food, farming and drink industries.

The awards recognise the sterling efforts of farmers, producers, retailers, pubs, farm shops and restaurants throughout Gloucestershire and, for a third year, we sponsored one of the categories.

The ‘farmer of the year’ award was presented to Tim and Julie Juckes of Tewkesbury by our agriculture & estates partner, Frank Smith.

The Juckes own a successful dairy operation and poultry enterprise, let numerous properties to commercial businesses and run bed & breakfast from their farmhouse.

Frank Smith was part of the judging panel made up of well-respected farming experts in the county. The judges felt that this family run business was a ‘good example’ of generation farmers who utilise every asset available to them on the 600 acre farm. He said:

“Congratulations to Tim and Julie Juckes. It was a close competition but the judges were particularly impressed by the various facets of the farming enterprise which Tim and Julie operate. The couple are keen to explore new technology to keep ahead of the market and have invested heavily in renewable energy to power their dairy and poultry businesses.”

Well done to Jess and Mike Vaughan and Ruth and Jonathan Powell, who were the runner-ups in the best farmer category, and to the finalists and winners of all the other categories. To read about all the winners please visit the Taste Awards website.

Our agriculture and estates department provides authoritative legal advice to equestrian businesses, farming partnerships, landowners and those buying prime agricultural property.

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