Winners of the 2018 ABP Agricultural Journalism Awards were announced at the Guild’s Harvest Lunch, held on 11 October at Painters’ Hall, London.
There are three award categories: Arable; Livestock and Grassland; and Environment and Rural.
Arable category
Winner of the Arable Category is freelance Louise Impey (pictured above receiving here award from ABP’s Richard Phelps) for her Farmers Weekly article on the benefits of arable businesses collaborating.
Judges felt this “very strong, engaging feature covered a lot of ground, offering farmers some very practical guidance on how and why farm-to-farm collaboration works.”
Runner up is freelance Adam Clarke, for his piece in Farmers Weekly on how a Kent grower reduced costs by making his own fertiliser.
Judges felt it “combined a wide range of farming philosophies, a romp through soil science, biodynamics, organic principles, bacteria and the power of the right nutrients.”
Livestock category
Freelance Sarah Alderton was the clear winner for her Farmers Weekly article on one farm’s battle to survive Mycoplasma Bovis disease.
This “brilliant article on a devastating and exceptionally tricky disease… condenses a lot of information and knowledge into a very readable, well constructed feature.”
Runner up is Olivia Midgley of Farmers Guardian for her article on the battle against Bovine TB, the first of a series of articles that have since been collected into a special briefing paper on the subject.
Judges described it as “a great piece of fact-packed reporting, very nicely written.”
Rural Affairs / Environment category
Winner is Alex Black of Farmers Guardian for her article on Farming on the Irish border, which finds itself at the heart of the Brexit negotiations.
Judges described it as “a very well written article on the politics of Brexit for the Irish border.”
Runner-up is freelance Olivia Cooper for her piece in The Furrow magazine entitled the return of the milkman.
Judges said: “The piece was a “great read, full of good advice on how to sell milk direct.”
