Lois Pearson has been named as the winner of this year’s BGAJ John Deere Training Award, with Jen Hawkes taking the runner-up spot.
Lois’s winning entry, written for Farmers Guardian’s digital platforms, told the story of FarmFlow, a farm productivity app built by 16-year-old Ben O’Connor on his family’s dairy farm in Castlewellan, Co Down, to cut the administrative burden on farmers. The app, trialled on more than 160 pilot farms across the UK and Ireland, lets users manage job lists, share tasks, log hours and track feed and medicines for farm assurance.
The entries were judged by professional journalism tutor David Mascord, who ran the course.
“Lois’s piece had everything we look for. It was newsworthy, well-structured and properly sourced, balancing the ambition of a young founder with the practical experience of a farmer who had used the app day to day, and an industry voice to put it into wider context,” David said.
“Above all, it was written with the reader in mind. Farm admin is a real pressure point for many businesses, and Lois showed clearly why this matters to them.”
Jen’s runner-up entry, a feature for CPM, explained how the Taguchi method, a technique borrowed from engineering, is being used in farm-scale agronomy for the first time. Part of the £2.5 million Defra-funded LLS-ERASED project, tramline trials across eight UK farms are using the approach to assess how oilseed rape variety and fungicide timing influence light leaf spot and yield.
“Jen took a technically complex subject and made it clear, engaging and relevant to growers, which is no easy task,” David added. “It was a very close call, and both entrants should be proud of their work.”
The BGAJ John Deere Training Award has run 31 times. It will take place again in July 2027, and applications will be open this winter.
