Shropshire agri-tech innovator wins National Women in Agriculture award
A Shropshire woman is celebrating after receiving a national Women in Agriculture award for innovation.
Caroline Wellon, of 02 Agri, based in Market Drayton, received the award at a ceremony held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London.
Now in its third year, the awards recognise women driving meaningful change and innovation across the agricultural sector.
Founded in 2021 by Caroline and her husband Charlie, O2 Agri has led the development and commercial rollout of a patent-pending nanobubble water treatment system designed to improve poultry health, increase feed conversion ratio, remove biofilm, reduce flock mortality, and lower reliance on harsh chemicals and antibiotics.
Caroline said: “We started out by building a machine to disinfect the inside of broiler houses to reduce the need for harsh chemicals like Formaldehyde.
“But through research we discovered that if we oxygenated the drinking water for the chickens, the benefits were massive.
“We started with a trial in 2022 and since then we have scaled up and we are commercially viable with more than 50 million birds having drunk our water.”
The O2 Agri system offers a data-backed, reduced-chemical alternative to conventional disinfection and antibiotic-dependent practices within the poultry industry.
By increasing dissolved oxygen levels in birds’ drinking water, the technology improves oxygen delivery to tissues, supports immune response, reduces biofilm formation, and helps lower flock losses and rejection rates.
Reflecting on the journey of building the business, Caroline said:
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve driven this initiative from early-stage research through to real-world implementation on commercial farms.”
Caroline and O2 Agri have previously been recognised as a finalists in both the National Egg and Poultry Awards and the British Farming Awards.
She added: “I am proud to contribute to the modernisation of poultry production, while supporting sustainable farming and strengthening the role of women in agricultural innovation.”
Over the past year, Caroline has travelled to Australia three times as part of two Innovate UK programmes.
The first was with the Global Incubator Programme, a six-month initiative to support global agrifood tech ventures to expand into Australia, involving two in-country visits , during which Caroline secured a trial in principle with The University of Queensland.
The second was with the Global Explorers Programme, a two-week visit to Brisbane, where Caroline met with poultry producers and industry stakeholders to further expand her knowledge of the sector and explore opportunities in Australia.
