BQP Farmers Awards

BQP farmers from across the North of England gathered on 20 October for the annual BQP Farmers Awards North at the Bridge Hotel in Wetherby.

These annual awards celebrate the best in the industry from across the north of England and include trade stands and guest speakers. This year’s winners include:

Breeding Stock person 2021 – Jon Lawn
Most Improved Breeding Farm – RO & J Johnson
Highest performing Breeding Farm – F & L Pigs
Growing Farms Stock person of the Year – R Wilson
Best Finishing Farm Performance – RM & J Harrison
Best growing Farms Performance (below 1500 places) – DL Blanchard
Best growing Farms Performance (above 1500 places) – E. Deeley and Son
Next Generation Award – B Duffin
Breeding Trainee of the Year – T Bagguley
Growing Trainee of the Year – L Wellings
Innovation Award – A Kay
Sustainability & Environmental Stewardship Award – S Daw
The Partnership Award – E & E Jackson
The Farmer of the Year – Jon Lawn Pigs

Howard Revell, Pig Production Director, helped judge the winners and explained: “The last year and half has been tough for all our farmers, so we are pleased to once again be gathered in one space to celebrate all our successes. It was very hard picking the winners, but at the end we had to pick those that stood out and embodied the BQP philosophy. However, let’s not take anything away from all our other farmers. Thanks to their hard work and dedication we are able to deliver food to people up and down the country – all whilst maintaining our high quality BQP standards.”

Guests also had a chance to hear from Georgina Lamb from the Farming Community Network, Kate Roddy Pilgrims UK Category Manager for Co-op, and Matt Dight, Pilgrim’s UK Head of Sustainability.

Mark Jagger, Assistant Grower Farms Manager, added: “I was thrilled to see so many old faces, and new ones, once again. I want to congratulate all the winners for their tireless efforts. But I also want to thank all our farmers for coming and listening to our speakers as we set our vision for the future and thoughts from our key business partners like Co-op.”

BQP help farmers breed and rear over 1 million pigs a year using industry-leading production systems, including outdoor born, straw-finished, RSPCA Freedom Food Assured, free range and organic. With around 30% of the UK market share, this makes us the UK’s largest pig business. BQP has supplied high welfare British pork to the major retailers in the UK for 40 years, since 1979.