RWAS announces Tudor Roderick as 2026 Royal Welsh Nuffield Scholar

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (RWAS) is sponsoring Brecon farmer Tudor Roderick as the 2026 Royal Welsh Nuffield Scholar.

Tudor will study if low input forage-based livestock systems can be key to business resilience in a changing climate. He will be presented with a certificate during the official opening ceremony of the Royal Welsh Winter Fair on Monday, November 24.

His family farm in the Brecon Beacons is increasingly experiencing the impacts of more extreme and unpredictable weather patterns. Prolonged periods of hot and dry summers have significantly hindered grass growth, while increasingly wet winters are shortening the grazing season and driving up wintering costs.

These conditions pose considerable challenges for maintaining a low-input, forage-based livestock system.

Through Tudor’s study trip, he aims to investigate how farmers in other regions are successfully adapting their systems in response to climate change.

This includes exploring the use of more drought-tolerant forage crops, implementing adaptive grazing strategies and enhancing livestock genetics for greater resilience.

The primary objective is to identify practical, cost-effective and scalable solutions that can be trialled back home at Newton Farm and shared with the wider farming community. 

By learning from others already tackling similar issues, Tudor hopes to bring back insights that will help future-proof forage-based livestock systems in the UK.

Having grown up on the family beef and sheep farm in the Brecon Beacons, he developed an early love for agriculture, which he pursued academically by attending Hartpury College and later Aberystwyth University.

In 2023, Tudor received a Hybu Cig Cymru scholarship, travelling to Australia to look at sheep breeding for better resistance to worms. He experienced first-hand the power of performance recording to drive genetic improvement in the sheep industry.

Outside of farming, he enjoys trail and cross-country running and has recently completed the 22-mile Man vs Horse Race in Llanwrtyd Wells.

The RWAS says its proud to continue supporting Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust, an organisation that gives individuals life-changing opportunities, aimed at developing the agricultural leaders and innovators of the future.

The society is committed to encouraging education and research within the agriculture and land-based sectors in Wales, with continued investment in young people forming a core part of its charitable objectives and future vision.

All Nuffield Scholars work within the farming, food, horticulture or rural sectors and during their 18-month study period undertake a research project in an area of their own interest. 

The winning candidate receives a bursary to encourage them to travel for at least eight weeks, providing them with the opportunity to study practices used abroad and at home. 

The scholarship offers an opportunity to study a key area of change or development within the food chain, culminating in a report designed to help British farmers explore new ideas for their businesses.