Being a young farmer is a hell of a lot of fun!! Recently our junior members enjoyed the junior rally in which they go round loads of different games and challenges and basically have fun; it is nice for them to interact with the other clubs too. The Intermediate and Senior members also have a similar competition which is the Carrs Billington Challenge.

Thre are various different sports competitions for all members to enjoy throughout the year. This year the juniors played 5 a side football and the seniors played hockey.

Each week after the meeting we try to arrange a talk or organise something like a fun road show which the juniors always seem to enjoy.

Intermediate and senior members have pleanty of socials to enjoy too.

President –  Carol Hodgson

Vice President –  Christine Knipe

Chairman – Dennis Sharp

Vice Chairman – Lucy Mason

Secretary – Anne Fell

Treasurer –  Stuart Lambert

Vice Treasurer – Nicola Mason

Programme Secretaries – Laura Percival

Social Secretary – Daniel Asplin

Stock Judging Officers – Sam Wilkinson

Minutes Secretary – Emma Littlewood

Club Leaders – Gary Mason and Angela Carter

Take a look at the Cumbria website

www.cumbriayfc.co.uk

Take a look at the National website

www.nfyfc.org.uk

Take a look at our Facebook Page

Just type in Kent Estuary YFC and you should find it!

Through out the year, our programme secretary(s) try to organise a wide range of different talks and visits for us all to enjoy to try and keep us interested.

Hopefully some of the things we learn will help is in some of the competitions we enter such as flower arranging and it may give some people the confidence to do it after they have seen how it easy it is.  

Some examples of the talks/demonstrations we are having or have had in the past are :-

• Flower arranging
• Lakeland Dialect
• Hunting and Countryside sports
• First aid
• Cumberland and Westmorland Wresteling
• Stockjudging
• Bee Keeping
• Ferrets Talk
• Coastguard Talk

Some of the places we have been to visit or are going to go and visit:-

• Megazone
• Golf Driving Range
• Morecambe Superbowl Bowling
• Greenlands Farm
• Kendal Fire Station
• Ice Skating
• Lakeland Maize Maze
• Alpaca Farm
• Butchers and Bakerys

Other times we may just organise a fun night or in November we have our annual bonfire with fireworks and soup. We have Christmas Bingo every year too. We also have our annual conkers competition and Christmas Socials. We try to keep the visits and talks varied so hopefilly we can suit everyones tastes.

One of the main events of the Young Framers year and the one that everyone always looks forward to is the Field Day which is a day full of different competitions for all members to enjoy. The field day is held sometime in May. Each year one club (or two smaller clubs combined) take their turn to host the day. A few months before the field day each club in the district receives a list of all of the competitions. Around a quarter of these are classed as pre-field day competitions which have to be handed to the judges around one month before the field day to be judged. These could include photography, craft and metal and wood work.

There is a very wide range of competitions to do on the actual day some of these could include:-

• tug of war
• cooking
• flower arranging
• arm wrestling
• singing and dancing
• ATV, tractor and landrover handling
• stock judging
• club report
• sheep shearing
• club leader and advisory fancy dress
• cross country running
• finale obstacle race

There are also some competitions that need things bringing on the day which could include the club and county displays and maybe things like 4 uses of eggs, a loaf of bread and jar of fruit jam, various biscuits and cakes. This year one of the junior competitions was to make a robot out of paper mache!  

This wide range of competitions gives all our members a chance to do at least one thing.

Once all of the points have been added up, the results are read out. There are lots of different trophies to be given out for all of the various events like the stock judging. cooking and flower arranging. Also there is a trophy for the club who wins most points in the pre field day competitions. But all of these build up the the main event, the Cock of the North Trophy for the club with the most points altogether!! Kent Estuary have won this a fair few times over the years. It's a great day for everyone who competes and everyone always has fun.

Some of the competitions throughout the Young Farmers year include: -

• Brainstrust - which is basically debating 3 different topics, you have a chairperson and 3 pannelists. This is a good competition if you have an opinion and lots to say!
• Call my Bluff - which is similar to the game show. Basically you have 3 people in a team. You get a word and 2 people have to make up a 'bluff' and the other person says the correct meaning. The opposition has to then guess who is telling the truth.
• Junior Public Speaking - you have 3 people in a team 1 chair-person who takes the meeting, 1 speaker who speaks for up to 6 minutes about their faveourite subject and a vote of thanks who thanks the speaker.
• Senior Public Speaking - which is basically just someone getting up and speaking for 5 minutes about their chosen subject.
• Hedging and Walling
• County and District Sports - this is usually football and hockey, and maybe a few extra things like volleyball and badminton some years
• Entertainment/Drama/Panto - this brings the whole club together and have fun.