The David Black Award is open for nominations

The David Black Award has been honouring exceptional contributions to the pig industry for more than 60 years. Below, Mike Sheldon, Pork Sector Chair, encourages people to nominate their candidates for the 2023 award.

The Black family, after whom this prestigious annual award is named, have been pioneering and innovative farmers and pig producers for generations, and it is their foresight which realised the importance of recognising others who had made a fantastic contribution to the UK’s pork sector. AHDB, and its predecessors, have been pleased to pick up the mantle and support the David Black Award for many years.

The award is there to recognise an individual, or sometimes an organisation, who has made a substantial contribution to the pork sector over the course of their career.

A look back over past winners reveals a huge range of talent: from Maurice Bichard, remembered by many at PIC and elsewhere as one of the most influential geneticists who drove the leap forward in modern British pig breeding, to Stan Done, an absolute legend among government veterinary officials, who did so much, so selflessly, to protect the UK pig herd from unwanted disease.

For readers with fewer grey hairs than I, perhaps Marcus Bates stands out among recent winners, for his unflagging work on two fronts: to ease the path of exports of British breeding stock to all corners of the world, and to preserve the precious diversity of rare British pig breeds.

I offer my apologies to those past winners whom I have not named, their achievements are equally amazing, but I think even they would agree that I have highlighted three superlative winners.

So, the time has come to nominate candidates for the 2023 award, to be presented at the National Pig Awards dinner later this year, and I would ask you to take the time to consider who, among your network, has made such a game-changing contribution to our sector, that their name should be added to this illustrious rollcall.

They can be from any discipline, scientific or otherwise, any organisation, public or private, or they can simply be an exceptional individual in your eyes.

The only criterion to emphasise is that they should have made their contribution over a long period, and because of their chosen career.

The closing date for nominations is 31 August.