The Manx Grassland Society annual dinner and prize presentations was held on Thursday night.

The awards were the culmination of two days of judging with a total of 25 different farms taking part this year and 14 judges.

Sanders Farms took the overall Silage Master award and the JDW Engineering Trophy for the first time at the annual Manx Grassland Society dinner and prize presentation.

The visiting judges Aled Rees and Osian Rhys Jones, who judged the main silage awards, gave Sanders the nod after visiting many other selected farms during their visit over.

The Best Silage Utilisation (Bibby Cup) was award to Neil and Vicky Masson.

The judges commented on how impressed they were with what the couple were growing with the land they had available. They had experimented with different legumes in the silage and it had paid off, albeit with lessons learned along the way.

There were 11 entries in the Best Big Bale competition which was judged by Adie Corlett, Jim and Archie Caley and the award went to Sanders Farms. The judges were impressed by the use of technology and willingness to try new things to achieve better results. Sanders also took home the Isle of Man Farmers Cup for Best Big Bale Analysis.

The Dow Agro Trophy for Overall Grassland management was awarded to the Cains at Glendown Farm.

The judges, Jim Caley and Sophie White, were impressed by how all the different enterprises worked together to get the best of land that isn’t always easy to farm.

The Cains also won the Caley Trophy for Best Kept Silage Pit with the judges commenting how neat the farm was and how well it worked for them.

Alan Teare won the Best Beef and Sheep Grassland management title and the Grassmaster/Independent Feeds which was sponsored by Isle of Man Meats.

The Best Forage Crop, the Old Church Farm trophy, was awarded to Chris Martin. The judge Derek Kermeen explained it wasn’t an easy decision with all entrants showing different strengths however, the Smeale farm crop showed great strength and uniformity from hedge to hedge which just gave it the edge over the competition.

Martin Stallard picked up the Mr & Mrs Matthews Cup for Best Hay.

Judges Will Qualtrough and Eddie Caley had their work cut out in what was an fantastic year for hay making with many farms to visit however Martin and the Boyd Bros just had the edge in this competitive field.

The overall winners of the Reseeds competition were Rory and Jim Nicholson.

The newly awarded John Kennaugh trophy for the Best Haylage, judged by MGS chairman David Quayle, went to Alan Radcliffe.

The Jack Kirkpatrick Cup for Best Clamp Analysis went to Jack Garrett. Jack also won the Ellerslie Cup for first place in the Silage Clamp competition. The judges were impressed with Jack as a young farmer taking on risks and giving it a go whilst achieving some great results.

The Best Wholecrop, judged by Will Duggan and Adam Kinvig, and receiving the Managrakem Volac Trophy was Charlie Corkill and the hotly contested best contractor award went to Kenny Coole Ltd.

The John Harris Award for innovative thinking was award to David and Rob Cooil for their research into dung beetles and for inspiring others to do the same.

The secretary of the Manx Grassland Society, Kayleigh Coole, said: ‘Thank you to all our sponsors this year, especially our main sponsors, Oliver Seeds: your continued support is very much appreciated, and to our judges Osian Rhys Jones and Aled Rees. ‘Congratulations to the Sanders family and all the team involved for collected the overall Silage Masters award and to everybody else who won awards.’