Winner of Zoetis - NFU Poultry Trainee Award

The National Farmers’ Union has joined Zoetis in sponsoring the award that began in 2007 and has been won by trainees from all sectors of the poultry meat industry.

As the first winner from the egg sector, Leah was presented with the award by Thomas Wornham, chairman of the National Farmers’ Union National Poultry Board, and now receives the £2000 training grant from Zoetis to help further her career.

“The NFU is pleased to be working with Zoetis to promote training within the poultry sector,” said Aimee Mahony, NFU poultry adviser. “The poultry sector is innovative and progressive, opening a door to an exciting career for many. It is encouraging to have three young people of such high calibre as our finalists. They are embracing training courses already on offer and by furthering their skills they will continue to be successful while enhancing their own personal development.”

James Porritt, Zoetis national sales manager for poultry and pigs, stated: “This is an exciting new chapter for the award with the NFU joining us as sponsors. The poultry industry deserves more recognition for the career opportunities it provides, and past winners and finalists have shown the tremendous potential to progress into managerial roles within a few years.”

Leah Page-Stott was competing against two other finalists – Aaron Fulcher who works in broiler production with P D Hook in Norfolk and Jack McAlister who works at the Joice & Hill layer hatchery near Peterborough.

All three finalists were given a tour of the Houses of Parliament and attended the award dinner later in the day.

Leah Page-Stott grew up helping with chickens. Her family has the free range egg business LCS Agriculture at Newbridge Farm, North Duffield, near York, and see her having an important role in planned expansion.

She began officially working for the business in 2017, keen to establish good relationships with feed suppliers, pullet rearers and the packing centre. She sat in on meetings and audits, taking notes and asking questions – and in a short time was running a 12,000-bird unit.

“I was responsible for introducing the birds to their new environment,” said Leah. “I would ensure I was there when they woke up and I would be on site until they went to bed, making sure all birds are up on the system before the lights went out.”

Leah is now completing level 3 apprenticeship in poultry. Her training adviser Ricky Isley of Poultec stated: “For someone of her age, Leah is showing exceptional dedication.

“She is taking on a lot of responsibility within the business, and every time I visit her she explains the improvements she’d like to make.”

She is looking to further knowledge of poultry management, in particular using the £2000 training grant for a distance learning course with Scotland’s Rural College.

Darnell Page, director of the business LCS Agriculture, commented: “Leah enjoys spending time with her birds and at times has been caught singing to them, believing that a happy bird will always give back. Her flock is proving to be a great flock with an obvious improvement in feather coverage compared to our previous flocks by improving our enrichment.”

Jack McAlister became bored working for a financial services call centre and by searching the Government website promoting apprenticeships he saw an opportunity at the Joice & Hill hatchery a few miles from his home at Market Deeping.

In the last 18 months he has worked in every area of the hatchery, made deliveries to customers and spent time on breeder farms.

He was given additional responsibilities after only five months and is now training to supervise the chick take-off, dispatch and culling areas and to have a role in health and safety, along with becoming a designated first aider and forklift operator.

Despite being brought up in a family involved in the poultry industry, Aaron Fulcher chose to work in catering for six years after two years’ study at Norwich City College. He didn’t see a future in catering and turned to the ‘Indeed’ app to search for other jobs.

He joined P D Hook in April 2016 initially as a chick team member setting up poultry sheds and tipping chicks. He soon become recognised as one of the most competent members of the group, and moved on to join the team on a 247,000-bird site at East Wretham in Norfolk.

The new role led to him being promoted as relief manager for broiler farms at Old Buckenham and Winfarthing where he is responsible for the day-to-day running of the 230,000 birds on these sites and he is seen as a potential farm manager in the future.