Carol Trewin, farming editor of the Western Morning News, has won first prize in the Hydro Awards for farming journalists.

She received the award for her article on badgers and bovine TB, published in the WMN last December.

Judges at the awards said: "She tackled the issue in a well researched, constructed and balanced manner.

"The article was worthy of wide coverage and could have been a leader article in a national broadsheet newspaper."

Carol said she was delighted to have won the prize and hoped that the article and the newspaper's commitment to the farming industry had helped improve the general understanding of some of the difficult issues facing Westcountry farmers.