Lancashire agri-business graduate, Tom Barlow, has won the 2016 Nick Bird Award at Harper Adams University.
Set up by Reading-based Farmex in recognition of the work carried out by Nick Bird, a director of the company who died in 2013, the award includes a perpetual trophy and a cheque for £500. It is given in recognition of an “outstanding piece of written work that involves recorded observations of an agricultural process, data analysis and interpretation with demonstrable added value for farmers”.
Mr Barlow, aged 24, from Leyland, graduated with a BSC (Hons) in agri-business and was selected by a panel of external judges for his dissertation on “The impact and significance of bruising in cull cows at slaughter”.
He was praised for the quality of his data analysis, having suggested the use of remote data gathering during transport since this is where most of the damage occurs.
“The losses associated with bruising are significant and no doubt, eventually, when all vehicles are tracked, drivers will do a better job of reducing damage to transported animals of all species,” commented Hugh Crabtree of Farmex, who judged the entries.
Nick Bird’s 17 years of working in the field of real-time monitoring of pig production had a significant impact on the industry.
Headline image shows Tom Barlow (right) receiving his award from Harper Adams University lecturer, Alan Stewart