Kerri awarded the 2020 John Langford Prize

Kerri Coffey, 23 from County Down, Northern Ireland, has been awarded the 2020 John Langford Prize.

Awarded to the individual who achieves the highest grade on the Skills for the Agricultural Professional module, the BSc (Hons) Agriculture with Animal Science student was noted for her continued development and commitment to her studies.

Along with this success, Kerri has been previously commended for her first-year results and has been awarded four scholarships: the Clyde Higgs scholarship, Studley College scholarship, the Ireland Devenish Nutrition scholarship and the AHDB and Bedfordia pig industry scholarship.

On her choice to study at Harper Adams, Kerri said: “Working from a young age on my uncle’s dairy farm cultivated a passion for livestock.

“Harper is well renowned across the industry for the level of research being completed at the university amongst some of the best individuals in the industry. For this reason, I wanted to learn from these people to become the best I can be to be successful in my future career. I also wanted the opportunity to gain experience working with pigs to potentially enter a progressive industry.”

Before attending Harper, Kerri gained a wide range of farm work experience from across Northern Ireland, England and France as well as working as a quality assurance auditor for a poultry factory. However, Kerri’s placement year will give her the opportunity to work within the pig industry as she hoped. She said: “I am very excited to be completing my placement year with AHDB and Bedfordia. I will be gaining experience in practical and technical aspects of the pig industry. I will also be completing a project that aims to benefit the pig industry at large.”

As a Harper ambassador and British Society of Animal Science ambassador, Kerri is keen to learn and grow interest within the animal science sector. She enjoys engaging with students and academics alike but takes particular pride in helping future students make the right educational decisions for them.

Looking to the future, Kerri said: “I am very interested in animal welfare and science behind production. I would love to have a career that enables me to keep up with research and relay it back to farmers that will help grow productivity and innovation in the industry.”