A HAMPSHIRE farmer has tasted success after winning hundreds of beers brewed from his own barley.

Arable farmer Mark Dunford has an added reason to be raising a glass during the festive season after winning the 750 bottles brewed at St Austell Brewery.

Farming around 1,200 acres from Lower Preshaw Farm in Upham, he won the prize in an annual spring malting barley competition organised by grain merchant Robin Appel.

The competition aims to find the cream of the crop among malting barley samples grown in the south of England.

Mark, who grows 400 acres of spring malting barley each year on his predominantly chalky land, along with wheat and oilseed rape, won the competition with a sample from his 2016 popular spring malting barley variety, Propino.

“We’ve been growing malting barley for as long as I’ve been farming,” said Mark.

“It’s potentially our best earner and works well with our soil and weather conditions in Hampshire. Propino is our preferred variety here. It usually takes the lion’s share of our acreage.

“We were really pleased with how the crop did in 2016.

“We were absolutely chuffed to win the competition. It was a fantastic day having the opportunity to go down to St Austell Brewery along with Jonathan Arnold of Robin Appel Ltd and helping to brew our very own ‘Dunford’s Dazzler’ beer. Creating the beer was a fantastic experience.

“With guidance from the brewery staff, we helped to create the taste and the strength, testing different hops and choosing which ones we wanted to use. It really was a great opportunity.”

Naming the beer and designing the label was a proper family job, he continued.

“We came up with the name over supper one evening, and the kids helped design the label – they’re a bit more creative than me,” he said.

“We’re really happy with how everything turned out, the logo really tells a story and the beer has been much enjoyed by friends and family.”

Propino was among the varieties grown on the farm again this season, and Mark has plans to sow the variety again in spring 2018.

“We’ve been growing it for a number of years and I think we’ll continue with it into the future. It always does really well for us,” he added.