PAUL Oughton, of Moreton, has set a record for the old established firm of agricultural advisors and land agents, Moore, Allen and Innocent.

At 32, he has become the youngest person in the firm's 150-year history to be promoted to a partnership. In the past, members of the firm have been in their 40s and 50s before being invited to become a partner.

"It's an honour to be the first to be invited so young," Mr Oughton said. "In other industries it is not so unusual as it is in farming."

After leaving the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, in 1994, Mr Oughton began working for Associated Agricultural Consultants, which merged with Moore, Allen and Innocent in 1998.

Educated at Chipping Campden School, Mr Oughton joined his parents and two elder brothers, Keith and Neal, working on he 850-acre prize-winning family farm at Moreton where he still lives.

He won the national CMA Farmers Weekly Farm Planner of the Year Award in 1993, the same year as he was best farm management student and top overall student at the RAC.

His current job involves helping manage 55,000 acres of farms in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire farms. He still finds time to chair the showground committee of the Moreton Show, an involvement which has taken up much of his spare time during the past eight years.