Farming Talk: Festive activities for Shropshire Young Farmers

As a county, some of us attended the National Federations of Young Farmers Achievers Awards, where we went to support our very own Vice County chairlady Millie Preece.

Millie had been nominated for Best Entrepreneur of the Year and very successfully came home with second place.

The event was very prestigious and was held at the National Conference Centre and Nigel Owens MBE, the president of NFYFC, hosted the proceedings.

In traditional young farmers' style many clubs around the county have hosted bonfires and fireworks over the last few weeks. There has been an excellent turnout of local people along with fellow young farmers to support these events.

For many clubs, the money they raise at their bonfires goes to support club activities and reduces costs to the members. Most clubs also allocate a proportion of their funds raised to other local charities that they will support throughout the year.

My local club Brown Clee YFC has also pushed the boundaries this month winning national club of the month.

They have had excellent sign-up of new and existing members this year due to the top table being super efficient as well as hosting a charity log lug and rugby match. The log lug saw local farmers donate logs which they chopped and split before selling to local villages.

Their second charity event was a seven-a-side rugby tournament very kindly hosted by Clee Hill Rugby Club where multiple counties put forward teams to play and along with supporters, sponsors and a BBQ with meat kindly supplied from Arbuckle butchers in Bridgnorth a fantastic amount was raised.

Coming up, we have the annual county carol service with local producers and craft stalls at the Shrewsbury Livestock Market on Thursday, December 14 at 7pm.

We would like to welcome everyone to come and join us for both the carol service and to browse the Christmas market.

We also have a Christmas Tractor Run in conjunction with RABI on December 17, where tractors will meet at Shrewsbury Livestock Market dressed with illuminations before heading into Shrewsbury along the route.

As I hope you can see, Shropshire YFC does a lot more than just farming. If you would like to know more about joining the biggest rural youth organisation please contact the county office on 01743 442880 or visit our website.

Max Porter, County Chairman Shropshire YFC