Every year when the Sydney Royal Show rolls around, there's one man from the Parkes Shire who wouldn't be anywhere else.

Barry Unger, a former Goobang farmer who now lives at Tomingley, has been volunteering and involved with Sydney Royal since he was 17.

He's heavily involved in the grains sector - sourcing, grading and preparing samples that takes hours and over hundreds of kilometres, for his district in western NSW.

But his contributions have never ended there.

While Barry admits the work can be very taxing, beginning again almost as soon as he returns home from the previous show, he can't help but be drawn to it.

The 65-year-old was presented a long service award for 25 years of service from the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW during this year's show.

"It's not just grain, it's boots and all, from beginning to end," he said.

"It's for the love of it - it's in my blood, I can't help it."

During his decades of service, he's most proud of creating the initial design for the Western District's display called Advance Australia, Advance Agriculture in the late 80s.

"I was only a young bloke," Barry recalled, the highlights still fresh in his mind.

"I made the Coat of Arms on my workshop floor.

"I went to Canberra to take a photo of it because there was no internet back then.

"It (the display) was magnificent.

"I'm biased but it was one of the best ones we'd ever done," he laughed.

"Ita Buttrose was a judge, that was a thrill by itself.

"I still remember shaking her hand, I said I wasn't washing it!"

Barry also helped with the Explorers Dream district exhibit a few years later, and was extremely honoured to be part of the team that won the Royal Agricultural Society’s District Exhibit Perpetual Shield for the first time in 37 years at this year's show.

It all would be nothing without the team effort though.

"It's all about the team. You take one person out, it all falls apart," Barry said.

And that's not just what goes into the district exhibits, it's in every aspect of being part of Sydney Royal.

"It's about improving, it's about learning, it's about the aim to succeed with the best," Barry said.

"That's why we do it.

"It's been a lifetime, feels like it too - I suppose I'll do it again."

Barry tries to support the younger generations at the show as well, such as the Young Judges Competition.

"Without the young ones involved and coming through, it's finished," he added.

"There'll be no shows."