Congratulations to our 2023 Winners!
Egg Packer of the Year
Sponsored by Tosca
Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs
Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs was founded in 1970 and has grown significantly over the decades, now packing over four million eggs per week. Over the coming years, further expansion is planned with an extension to the packing centre due to start soon.
Egg Producer of the Year
Sponsored by ForFarmers
Lower Yardro Poultry
Joe Price produces eggs at a family farm in Powys, where his birds have access to 60 acres of range. He has made astute investments in technology to provide the extra support he needs, and as a result runs a very efficient poultry farm.
Grower of the Year
Sponsored by Lallemand
Shirley Copeland, EC Drummond & Son
Shirley Copeland has been involved in the management of the farm since its construction more than 20 years ago. She has achieved excellent technical performance, made more impressive by the size and age of the farm.
Hatchery of the Year
Sponsored by DSM-Firmenich
Joice & Hill Poultry
Operating modern breeding and hatching facilities, and constant investment in advanced facilities, ensure Joice & Hill has the capacity to hatch and deliver consistently high volumes of healthy and productive chicks, with the lowest possible environmental impact.
Innovation of the Year
Sponsored by Aviagen
LJ Fairburn & Son
In November 2022, Fairburn’s Eggs launched an industry-first poultry ‘bed and breakfast’ partnership to give egg producers a much needed helping hand at a time when the sector faced a triple whammy of rising energy and feed costs, plus Avian Influenza.
Lifetime Achievement
Derek Kelly MBE, Kelly Turkeys
Derek Kelly has dedicated his working life to the poultry industry having received an MBE for his services to the sector in 1998. He has been on many boards and committees over the years, playing a leading role in shaping policy and legislation to ensure the best possible outcome for small and large UK turkey and chicken farmers alike.
St Ewe Free Range Eggs
St Ewe Free Range Eggs is a Cornish family business started in 1982 as an egg production operation, which expanded to packing in 2007. The brand has now grown to include 21 producer farms across the Southwest, Wales and Northern Ireland, and in May 2002 its new purpose-built packing centre was opened. Its eggs can now be found in some of the most renowned kitchens in the country including Le Gavroche, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Nathan Outlaw’s, Cornerstone and The Ritz.
2 Sisters Food Group
2 Sisters Food Group currently processes more than 10.5m chickens every week. Over the past three years, the company has been engaged in a huge programme to build its supply base to supply demand for Better Chicken Commitment chicken and is now Europe’s biggest higher welfare poultry producer.
Pullet Rearer of the Year
Sponsored by Ceva
Browne Poultry
Jason Browne rears pullets for Moy Park in County Tyrone. He rears 68,000 pullets per cycle and frequently hosts visits by the recipient laying farms prior to birds being transferred to them. Birds are of a high quality, with excellent uniformity, bodyweight and feathering.
Sustainable Farming Award
Sponsored by Elanco
Upper Moorend Farm
Upper Moorend in the heart of rural Herefordshire is owned by the Orgee family, who produce free range eggs for the happy egg co. In 2022, Joe and his father John spearheaded a new wetlands project to radically improve how the farm interacts with the local environment. It’s a nature-based solution seen as a win-win for all stakeholders: for farmers, for the environment, for local wildlife and for improving biodiversity.
Moy Park
Trade Supplier of the Year
Livetec Systems
This is the only award voted on by readers of Poultry Business magazine. Livetec Systems supports farmers with services designed to protect livestock, enhance biosecurity and control outbreaks.
Chris Forster, AJ Forster
Chris Forster is the owner of two broiler farms situated just outside Penrith in Cumbria. He and his team have a tight focus on data collection and end of crop summaries and as a result have achieved a European Efficiency Factor of 461 and a 1.49 feed conversion rate.
Young Farmer of the Year
Sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim
Ivory Arden, The Chirpy Egg Company
Ivory Arden has 128,000 free range hens, over four multi-tier units and has been running the family poultry business for seven years, since Arden was just 18 and whilst doing her degree in agricultural resource management. She alone manages all four units and 10 members of staff.
Young Farm Vet of the Year
Sponsored by Zoetis UK
Emma King, Poultry Health Services
Emma King’s major clinical interest is in turkey work, particularly in gut health and strong biosecurity. She was spent six years with Poultry Health Services and is now lead veterinarian for the north-east, as well as taking on other roles with the APHA avian expert group, and the BVPA committee.
Atif Alam, Moy Park
Atif Alam started at Moy Park in 2020 as a graduate management trainee with the technical department. In just three years, he has been on an impressive trajectory, carrying out multiple projects across all the sites within the UK, including the launch of an online Technical Academy, and a welfare improvement project at the Dungannon site which comprised of trials, data analysis and data sharing from factory to farm on all birds that were processed on site.
