The 2007 Perkins-sponsored ‘Power’ awards were presented during a very special lunch at the House of Lords hosted by Guild past President Baroness Hazel Byford.
The event celebrated the 35th year of the award and the 75th year of enthusiastic Guild supporter Perkins Engines, the Peterborough-based diesel engines manufacturer. Past winners were invited to join the celebrations, which included an exclusive guided tour of the Palace of Westminster.
Winner Mike Green, editor of British Dairying, entered an article on the UK’s first on-farm biogas plant, producing electricity from digested slurry and forage.
The judges said: “Any journalist contemplating an article on how to turn grass, slurry and maize into a biogas, and thence into electricity, is looking at a tough challenge. The winner pulled it off brilliantly.
“Accessible equally to the casual reader and to potential adopters of the process, Mike Green’s article showed how to ‘go green’ and make money too.
“Clarity of style, strong diagrams and crisp information panels combined to produce a top-quality piece of work, which reaches the high standards required to win the Perkins ‘Power’ Award 2007.”
Mike Green (right) receives his £2000 prize cheque from Steven Smith, Perkins sales director.
Specialist machinery freelance writer, Michael Williams, took the runner-up prize for an article revealing that the fuel-cell concept currently being touted as a potential power source for many vehicle types is no new thing.
His article, published in enthusiasts’ magazine Tractor & Machinery, describes research carried out by Allis-Chalmers in the 1950s using fuel-cells to power tractors.
This article impressed the judges with its “good, accessible writing linked to strong pictures of real historical interest; the intrinsic quality of piece was of the highest order.”
Michael Williams (right) received a £1000 cheque for his fuel-cell research article
Winning Article – Mike Green
Runner Up Article – Michael Williamson
Many past winners of the Guild’s Perkins Power on the Farm award were able to attend the 2007 presentation ceremony at the House of Lords. Photo: Annette Johnson, Perkins publications editor.
Front row (left to right): Michael Bird (freelance), Debbie Beaton (projects editor, Farmers Weekly Group), Baroness Byford (past Guild President and event host), Michael Williams (freelance), Steven Smith (Perkins sales director), Mike Green (British Dairying), Marion King (Perkins marketing communications manager).
Middle row (left to right): Andrew Faulkner (Profi International), Roger Abbott (Guild awards secretary), Don Gomery (Guild secretary), Ray Vale (Guild’s Perkins award judge), Andrew Pearce (freelance), Stephen Howe (ex-Farmers Weekly / Power Farming), Neil Kitson (Perkins marketing services manager), Gilly Johnson (freelance), Shirley MacMillan (freelance), Peter Hill (freelance).
Back row (left to right): John Levick (LAPR, Perkins media agency), Ted Fellows (ex-Farmers Weekly / Crops / Power Farming), Adrian Talbot (Perkins marketing communications and services manager), Claire Purdy (Perkins events organiser), John Baxter (former Perkins agricultural sales manager and award judge), Julian Gairdner (FWi).
