Bernard Matthews scholars selected

Posted 23 February 2016

Two students at Harper Adams University have received British Poultry Council scholarships, sponsored by Bernard Matthews. 

The awards provide £4,500 funding this year and a year-long, paid work placement. 

Scholar Lowri Bethan Jones, 21, from Ruthin, North Wales, is a second year BSc Agriculture with Animal Science student. 

She said: “This award is one of my biggest achievements so far and I’m very excited to start my placement in August, kick-starting my future within the agricultural industry

“The scholarship programme is an extremely valuable opportunity that I will continue to benefit from and will definitely assist with long-term career development.

“The Bernard Matthews work placement programme will give me the chance to spend allocated time at the different stages of development and production cycles within the turkey meat establishment. 

“The stages include breeder rearing farms, laying farms and the hatchery leading on to commercial farms whilst focusing on animal welfare, research and planning, the feed mill and agricultural engineering. 

“Being lucky enough to see the production process from start to finish will be an invaluable experience.

Lowri added: “Agriculture is an exciting, diverse and fast-evolving technological industry which is going through a major social and political revolution.

“As the need to produce more food from fewer hectares increases, there has never been a more exciting time to be involved in the agricultural sector. 

“The poultry sector is of particular interest to me because it is such a competitive and diverse field of study. The British poultry meat industry produces around 875 million chickens and 17 million turkeys each year, proving poultry meat to be the largest choice of meat chosen by consumers in the UK.”

The second Bernard Matthews scholar is Michael Edwards, 19, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, a first year FdSc Agriculture student. 

He said: “I applied for this award because Bernard Mathews is a well-renowned producer of fine quality meat within the poultry industry.

“The placement looked very interesting as there was a range of different options to do. I was interested in poultry and being able to get an understanding of every aspect of production seemed like the best way to get more knowledge.

“It has been quite an experience from the interviews to receiving my letter of congratulations. It was very fast-paced and there was a lot of competition for the scholarship, so I'm very grateful for the opportunity to prove myself and thankful that it came my way. 

“Hopefully after my year on placement and then finishing my course, I will be able to return to Bernard Mathews and hopefully in the future manage one of their farms. 

“I'm from a mainly arable background and so poultry is a completely new experience for me, but I look forward to the challenge and the experience that Bernard Mathews has offered.”