NFYFC awarded 10 trophies at its 92nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) in April, with awards for fundraising achievements, competitions, training and membership increases.
YFC clubs and county federations annually raise funds for national and local charitable causes and YFC fundraising activities were recognised.
Harmston YFC in Lincolnshire collected the Forage Aid trophy for being the YFC to raise the most money for the charity. A tractor run and the club’s rally contributed to their £1,700 total.
Andrew Ward MBE, who started Forage Aid in 2013, attended the AGM to present the trophy to the club.
“Without the Young Farmers’ Clubs we wouldn’t really survive. Whenever there’s a weather event in the country, there’s always a Young Farmers’ Club not far away and they have always helped us in helping to clear up and getting the feed out,” said Andrew.
“In the 10 years that we have been going now, we have donated to various farms about £890,000 worth of straw, forage, feed and bedding and 98% of that has been free of charge. Thank you very much Young Farmers for the support. It has been fantastic and helps us hugely.”
The Lionel Hill MBE Club charity cup was awarded to Dinas Maswddwy YFC from Meirionnydd and the Prince of Wales trophy was awarded to Northumberland County Federation.
Dinas Maswddwy YFC raised funds for worthy causes and the Northumberland county federation raised funds for charities including the Macmillan Cancer Trust and other Northumberland based charitable organisations.
Trophies for competitions performance were also awarded, with Devon presented with the NFU Trophy for being the champion county federation in national competition finals.
County Chair Dan Grist collected the award on behalf of the Devon Federation. He said:
“This is an absolute credit to all the members who took part in competitions last year. All the trainers, judges and stewards that we have in Devon. They’re a competitive bunch and from Stockjudging to Tug of War, to Fashion Make and Model, there was such a breadth of success in competitions last year and it’s a credit to all those involved.”
Bedfordshire collected the Tug Wilson trophy for being the reserve champion county federation in the national competition finals. Berkshire County Federation was awarded the Worshipful Company of Farmers Trophy for being the champion small county in national competitions, whose membership is among the lowest 50% of counties.
East Riding of Yorkshire increased its membership numbers by 451.22% over the last three years and was awarded the Merrick Burrell Tankard for their achievements.
County Chair Luke Brignall said the county had attended local college events and shows to help promote YFC to new audiences.
“We still have a high number of juniors so we’re putting quite a lot of junior events on to keep them engaged and giving a lot of information to parents as well. We’ve also started doing some events for the seniors as well. It’s hopefully keeping them more interested, and they’ll tell their friends and bring in more members.”
During the meeting, Andrew Spencer, the Chair of the Young Farmers Ambassadors presented a cheque for £2,000 to support the YFC Travel programme. He also awarded Anneliese Retallick from Devon, the YFC trophy for the presentation she created following her volunteering trip to Kenya.
Anneliese used the presentation to share her experience with organisations that had supported her adventure.
“I produced a presentation that had videos and reels of the work that we did and pictures of us in the schools and hospitals,” explained Anneliese. “I presented that to all of the charities and groups that were able to provide me with some money to go out there to show where their funding went.”
Tom Nichols from Leicestershire was awarded the Top Trainer award for delivering the most training sessions and for his excellence in training.
The final trophy of the meeting – The Sidney Fawcett trophy – is awarded to the member who makes the greatest contribution to the democratic proceedings of the AGM.
This year it was awarded to Zoe Stanbury from Somerset for her impassioned speech about increasing the membership fee to support the future of YFC for younger members.
“I just see that to maintain the fantastic programme we need this extra money to come in,” said Zoe. “When you compare Young Farmers to other organisations, we offer so much more for so little money. There needed to be an increase to maintain the fantastic opportunities young farmers are given.”
Zoe said that by taking opportunities to build her public speaking confidence throughout her six years in YFC it had made delivering her speech at the AGM a little easier.
“I couldn’t believe it was me and thought they [the judges] meant someone else, it doesn’t seem real,“ said Zoe when she was announced as the winner of the trophy.
“I was so shocked to win as there were so many other deserving members that got up and spoke about a very hard topic. There were very good arguments both for and against the motion.”
NFYFC awards the 10 trophies every year at the AGM based on achievements from the previous membership year.
