Success Of Harper Adams University Marked At Annual Worshipful Company Of Butchers’ Luncheon And Awards
The students – who are on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses – were invited to join the Court Lunch with the Worshipful Company to celebrate their respective awards and scholarships. Each of these are either administered or given by the Worshipful Company of Butchers Education and Charities Committee.
Final year BSc (Hons) Agri-business student Joe Bramall was named the 2023 recipient of the Gary Baker Award at the event.
The Gary Baker Award is administered by the Worshipful Company of Butchers in conjunction with Harper Adams. It is made to a student at Harper who is carrying out an undergraduate degree that has relevance to the meat and livestock industry and has completed the third year – the compulsory industrial placement year – of their four-year degree course.
The student is required to demonstrate their intention of pursuing a career in the meat industry by submitting a report to show their understanding of the meat sector, the value of their placement year and their future career plans.
Joe was given a trophy, money to support the future development of his career in the meat industry and a year’s free membership of the Young Butchers club.
As part of the ceremony, he was also required to present to the Worshipful Company’s Court.
He said: “In my presentation to the Court I discussed my time as a Progressive Young Farmer with McDonald’s, what I had learnt about the sector over my 12-month placement and about my time in final year at Harper.
“It was a brilliant experience visiting Butchers’ Hall. I met a lot of great people from across the sector and had some really interesting conversations about the future of the sector.
“Winning the award is a real honour and I feel very lucky to have met some brilliant people during the interview process and down at Butchers’ Hall.”
The company also offer various scholarships to support students at Harper Adams University.
This year, scholarship recipients include three Masters of Research (MRes) students, Aine Murray, Liz Tree and Tom Nash, whose respective projects are: The potential role of ruminant by-products in the carbon footprint calculations of meat, An evaluation into the impact of the charity Farms for City Children on participants’ agricultural awareness and Wellbeing and Net zero strategies in UK beef and sheep sectors.
Aine Murray and Liz Tree both gave a five minute presentation to the court on their progress so far in their research degrees.
Aine said: “I talked about my work as Agricultural Project and Compliance Officer at Linden ABP Dungannon, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, and how I am combining it with my MRes part time at Harper Adams
“My MRes is focusing on beef at present but I could expand the research to include lamb – I started in September 2022 and I have currently completed two taught modules over at the Harper Adams campus. I have also started to read around the topics of carbon footprinting and life cycle analysis across similar industries in the hope I can apply common learnings and ideas.
“At the same time, I’m leading sustainability projects at work, such tree planting schemes and farmer education evenings – these focus on carbon emission reduction techniques such as breeding for animal efficiency, land use management, and biodiversity as well as conservation and the maintenance of natural habitats.”
And Liz – who has also just been named an NFU Ambassador for this year – said: “I did a short, five-minute presentation around my MRes, thanking the court for their support, explaining my background and why the charity is important to me, coming from London and finding my way into farming and agriculture.
“I also described what stage I am at with my own research and spoke about a module I did, titled Issues in Inclusive Education, and how this links extremely well to my research topic, which is evaluating how Farms For City Children impact the children who visit them.
“I also spoke about getting ethical approval for my research, and offered some insights into the research design process.
“It was an amazing experience to go to Butchers’ Hall.
“I was sat with some extremely interesting people, it was both a great networking opportunity and a brilliant chance to catch up with people. And to top it off – the food was delicious!”
Also present from Harper Adams were Liveryman Professor Jude Capper, Liveryman Professor Bob Bansback, Dr Lynn McIntyre, Claire Toogood, Claire Robertson and Liveryman Martin Anderson.
Martin Anderson said: “This particular event is always a great celebration of the impact that scholarship and funding can have on the development of careers and research for our students.
“Harper Adams University and its students are so grateful to the Worshipful Company of Butchers and the Baker family for their ongoing support.”
Following the dinner, Andrew Parker, Master of the Worshipful Company of Butchers was highly complimentary, and added: “The Butchers Company Court and our Charities’ Committee would like to congratulate all the students on their presentations – which were most impressive.”