One of my cowboy photos was awarded top prize in an international photography competition today; the first time the award was given to a photographer from the United States in 14 years. The Star Prize for Agricultural Photography, sponsored by DeLaval, a manufacturer of dairy and farming machinery, and presented by the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ), recognizes excellence in agricultural photography from around the world.

Photographers competed in three categories—people, production, and nature—from which an overall winner is selected. My photograph of a cowboy moving cattle on a rainy day in the Bear Paw Mountains near Lloyd, Montana was the photograph selected by the judges as the winner of the people category. It was then selected by the judges as the overall winner among entries from over 30 countries.

The award was presented today at the 2016 IFAJ Congress in Bonn, Germany.

They invited me to attend but didn’t tell me I had won anything until today. My little brother got married this weekend in California so I just couldn’t make it.

A delegation of American agriculture journalists and editors accepted the award on my behalf.

Although the annual competition has been running for more than 20 years, this is the first time a photographer from the United States has won an award from the IFAJ Star Prize for Agricultural Photography contest since 2004.

I couldn’t be happier.