Yorkshire Federation of Young Farmers Clubs celebrates 50 years and 1,300 members

But Yorkshire Federation is currently booming, says deputy president Rachel Wilson, also president of Ebor district, one of nine districts that make up the federation which currently has a membership of around 1300 among its 45 clubs.

“It is a different organisation to what it was when I was a member,” says Rachel. “And it is just as successful in many ways, including the opportunities of making new and often lifelong friendships, new skills and personal development through interaction with others, competitions like public speaking and the county and district rallies.

“We currently have a massive junior membership among 10-16 year olds, which is great and brings its own challenges for those who assist in leadership roles or in positions throughout the federation in how we meet the needs of today’s young people and encourage everyone, so that they have the opportunities we had.

“I joined as very shy 15-year old from our family farm in Moor Monkton, became involved with everything because of the encouragement I received from others, and one of our core strengths has always been that encouragement of the membership to come up with its own ideas, that’s how it has always remained relevant.

Kirsty Chapple is the current Yorkshire Federation County Chairman having been a member of Holme Valley YFC. Her dad is chairman of Emley Show and a former farmer.

“What makes Young Farmers Clubs unique is that we do what the members want. It’s about them putting their own ideas forward. While we have so many younger members it is important that everyone through the whole YFC age range from 10-28 gets something out of it.

“We are a lot more reliant on past members and parents, including our members at the upper end. We have always encouraged clubs to look at their programmes and we have just started a new Promotion & Skills Committee to help tailor them so that junior, intermediate and senior members all feel good about their involvement.

“We want to keep that cross section of age range. Hopefully, because our junior membership is strong, we may find ourselves with a much bigger intermediate and senior membership once again in future.

“We still have many of the elements that have been involved in the YFC programme for many years, including, of course the rallies, stockjudging, public speaking, visits to local rural businesses, sports and such, but there have definitely been changes to reflect today’s needs.

Adrian Willis is Yorkshire Federation president and has been a previous county chairman and chairman of the North East area. Adrian was on the county committee when North and West merged in 1974.

“The first county meeting I remember going to was at what is now a Wetherspoon’s at the Spa Baths in Harrogate. Nobody went to an Exec Meeting in those days without a jacket and tie. I remember being county vice chairman when we held a meeting at Hotel St George in Harrogate. I was sat on the top table. We were going through correspondence and I suddenly realised to my horror that I wasn’t wearing a tie.

“The challenges we face as the Yorkshire Federation today include the geographical one that we’ve had all along of being quite widespread. The county goes from Loftus on the Yorkshire coast to down to Penistone and across to Burton in Lonsdale; but our bigger issues are in retaining membership among the 18-28 year olds and, particularly in my South Yorkshire area, the ongoing urbanisation and development of big infrastructure projects, which erodes the amount of agricultural land.

“It is harder for clubs to survive there and we have lost a lot of clubs, including my club Worsborough that closed in 2013 because the land is now all under tarmac and concrete.

“And as agriculture has become and becomes more mechanised, employing bigger machines with a need for less people our membership marketplace from those actively involved with farming gets squeezed.

“We have two huge positives at the moment, in that we are attracting many young members, and we are attracting new members who live in the countryside but maybe haven’t a strong farming connection, many of whom become really keen on things like stockjudging. That’s a really good thing for the future.

Kirsty says that the 50th anniversary is an ideal time to recognise the achievements of the Yorkshire Federation and bring together many past and present members and supporters.

“We are hosting two major events in the coming months and we would love to see all of those who have been involved in any way. Unfortunately, there are always some we have lost touch with and we are hoping that anyone who reads our story and would like to come, or know more, will get in touch or will let others know about it.

“The celebratory dinner dance, which can seat 550, will take place in the Voltigeur Suite at York Racecourse on Saturday April 6 and tickets are available from the County Office on 01423 546170.

“We are also hosting a celebratory afternoon tea & church thanksgiving to be held at Kirklington in June, for those who might prefer a daytime event and might find it more applicable to them, but again this would not rule out going to both. We haven’t set a date for this as yet but we would love to see all of those who have been involved in Young Farmers in some way over the past 50 years. Once again, we would encourage a call to County Office.