Daniel Bush wins Poultry Trainee of the Year award

Daniel Bush is this year’s winner of the Pfizer Trainee of the Year Award, in conjunction with Poultry World.

The award was presented to Daniel by the former junior DEFRA minister Lord Rooker at a ceremony at the House of Commons yesterday.

The award was introduced last year by Pfizer Animal Health in conjunction with Poultry World, recognising the importance of training in helping UK producers to meet higher animal welfare and food safety standards in an increasingly competitive global market.

Daniel Bush, chosen as winner of the poultry award through votes by Poultry World readers, followed his father in working for Crown Chicken mainly driving feed trucks and only began looking after chickens just over a year ago.

He now manages an 180,000-bird broiler unit at Swainsthorpe, near Norwich. Matthew Ward, agricultural director of Crown Chicken, said he was impressed by how quickly Daniel had learned and taken advice, quoting the example of how he had managed to counter the spiralling cost of heating, halving the use of gas through managing the ventilation according to the chickens’ body heat.

“Daniel has shown an aptitude for leaning and dedication to the job that sets an example to others,” said Mr Ward.

“He has improved the results of the site and is now one of our top performing broiler farm managers.”

Andrew Farley, poultry lecturer at Easton College which provided the training, said Daniel is an enthusiastic student keen to qualify for NVQ Level 3. “His assessor reported he was a pleasure to work – and hopes for many more like him.”

The award winners each receive a £2000 training grant and a £500 cash prize, together with engraved trophy for them and their employers.

Runners-up for the poultry award are Christopher Burton, of Hykeham, Lincoln, relief farm manager working with 25 farms of Moy Park in Lincolnshire – he chose a career in poultry after originally gaining a sports science qualification – and Martin Womack, who manages 92,000 broilers on two sites at Bunwell, Norfolk, for the Harvey family, broiler growers for Banham Poultry.

• Zoltan Lovas is the pig winner. He began working with pigs in his native Hungary, and then on two units in Denmark, before moving to England to join J D Leavesley at Needworth, Staffordshire, in 2006.  The runners up are Matthew Wright, of Thetford, and Helen Hooks, at Saham Toney.