The Devon Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group's Bronze Otter Award is presented each year to the farmer who best demonstrates commercial farming, combined with environmental management.

This year the competition was a close-run thing, with Robin Milton, of Partridge Arms Farm, West Anstey, near South Molton emerging as overall winner.

Sustainable farming is a key goal for North Devon's UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and as the winning farmer in the Reserve area, Mr Milton will also receive their Sustainable Farming Award, together with an award from the Western Morning News, which originally presented the trophy. Mole Valley Farmers are presenting vouchers to the winner and two runners-up.

All the awards will be presented at Partridge Arms Farm on September 8, and will incorporate Devon FWAG's AGM and a farm walk, with supper to follow.

The Devon FWAG Bronze Otter competition and national FWAG Silver Lapwing Award champion farmers who are able to meet the challenges faced on a commercial farm, while fully integrating environmental management into their businesses.

The farms entered into the Bronze Otter competition are judged on five main criteria – business viability, the efficient use of agricultural inputs such as manure, herbicides and pesticides; practices to encourage wildlife; the conservation of natural resources like water and energy, and the way the general public is involved.

Mr Milton was able to highlight how his farming enterprise complements the habitats on his holding, such as rush pasture, species-rich hay meadows, traditional orchards and woodlands.

His involvement with the Exmoor National Park Authority, Uplands Entry Level Stewardship steering committee and the NFU demonstrates his passion for the industry and promotion of farming in the uplands, said Paul Cottington, South West NFU environmental adviser and one of the judges.

He said: "Visiting Robin Milton's farm was a real joy. He showed us exactly how you can make the best bits of land do a little more while letting the rest focus on wildlife and resource protection. Robin has taken very practical steps that only someone who knows the land can ever do. He has changed the crops in certain areas where he knows there will be issues and instead fitted them around delivering more birds and bees while still enabling him to make an income to pay for it all.

"The fact that Robin has common land, lowland and upland means that he is an example of best practice for so many farmers. At the end of the day the reason he won was because this is a commercial farm that has built sympathetic management of the landscape and its wildlife into its very core."

This year's Bronze Otter was a very close contest and the judges agreed the standard was very high and were full of praise for the way that the FWAG ethos was implemented. Runners-up are Robert and Wendy Vere of Moor Farm, Morchard Bishop and Peter Chudley, of Romansleigh.