The team at an East Yorkshire poultry business are celebrating after a team member reached the final of a national farming award.
Melanie (Mel) Jackson, Poultry and Farms Supervisor at Middleton on the Wolds-based Clive Soanes Broilers has been shortlisted in the Farm Worker of the Year category in the British Farming Awards.
Sponsored by Morrisons the Awards, which this year celebrate their 10th anniversary, champion innovative, determined and extraordinary farmers across all sectors of the industry, and aim to showcase the diversity and resilience of the UK’s farming community.
Clive Soanes Broilers MD, Claire Wright said: “Mel thoroughly deserves to be in the final four of this prestigious competition. She is passionate about animal welfare, hard-working, personable and has a tremendous thirst for knowledge. She’s a real asset to the Clive Soanes Broilers team and we wish her every success.”
Founded in 1947, Clive Soanes Broilers has been rearing chicken in the region and selling via their sister company Soanes Poultry to butchers, independent retailers and restaurants in Yorkshire and to wholesalers and catering butchers nationwide.
Ms Jackson faces competition from fellow finalists, Alison Waugh from Daisy Bank Dairy, in Powys; Amanda Thomas from Laylands Farm, North Yorkshire and Jennifer Proudlove, from Halton Farms Ltd, Cheshire.
The winner will be announced an awards ceremony at The Vox Conference Centre in Birmingham on Thursday 20th October with the category judged by last year’s winner, Chloe Shorten along with Becci Berry from the Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture, Hannah Binns from Agriconnect and Guy Moreton from MorePeople.
For more information about Soanes Poultry visit www.soanespoultry.co.uk.