The award recognised the trainee achieving the highest overall marks in the association's industry training programme.
Study for the 12-month course, which leads to the New Zealand Certificate of Stock Feed Manufacturing, involves a combination of theory units, workplace assessments and two two-day workshop courses.
Mr Jones is a senior mill operator at the Sgt Dan Stockfoods pelletised feed mill in Gore, where he oversees a variety of computer-operated and manual processes from the unloading of pallets of ingredients to dispatch of the finished product.
Sgt Dan Stockfoods managing director Daryl Moyles said Mr Jones, who has worked at the mill for nine years, had a ‘‘wealth of experience''.
‘‘He is also a first-class team member who doesn't hesitate to pitch in and help with any task that may be required,'' Mr Moyles said.
His involvement in feed milling began when, as a teenager, a casual bagging job at an NRM mill in Mataura led to work in the feed press area and then further experience at a mill in Oamaru.
During a year working for Solid Energy in Southland, he gained a boiler ticket and undertook health and safety courses, which later helped him play an ‘‘instrumental'' role in drafting the health and safety policies for the Sgt Dan mill.