Welsh YFC's triumph at English Winter fair

Young Farmers Club members from Wales dominated the awards for county teams in the stock-judging competitions at last weekend’s inaugural English Winter Fair where 170 young farmers from across the country competed in competitive classes hosted by Staffs YFC.

The new show took place last weekend, November 15-16 and saw changes to the YFC competitive classes kindly sponsored by the English Beef & Lamb Executive. For the first time Young Farmers were able to judge all three classes of livestock - beef, pigs and sheep - in both the live ring and in the purpose-built Carcass Hall thanks to support from the show organiser, Staffordshire & Birmingham Agricultural Society.

After a full day of judging the Birmingham Agricultural Exhibition Society Silver Challenge Cup was awarded to Gwent YFC after they gained a whopping 1006 points in all the classes.

Montgomery YFC followed this in second place with a very commendable 977 points and Yorkshire YFC came third with 972 points. The Bob Williams trophy for the highest placing in judging animals on the hook was awarded to Gloucestershire YFC with 511 points and the Mark Madders trophy for judging animals on the hoof was awarded to Carmarthenshire YFC.

The day was hailed a great success with a very high standard of scores across the classes, reports Staffs YFC county organiser Julia Taylor. "It was great to have 17 county teams competing and demonstrating they know their stuff when it comes to livestock."

The local team from Staffordshire YFC achieved success in the Beef Carcase classes. Members Dan Weston and Matthew Wright took the Highest Scoring Individual Prizes along with the 1st place in the Overall Team with a combined total of 168 points.

In the Overall Team Live Beef Class, Gail Lewis and Ffion Jones from Montgomery YFC took the first place with a combined total of 192 points.

In the Pork Carcase the Overall Team was Vicky Hicks and Sarah Albutt from Gloucestershire YFC with 183 points, and in one of the new classes for 2008, the Live Pigs Overall Team was Arwel Jones and Eiran Jones from Carmarthenshire YFC, jointly with Kath Woodey and Kate Kirton from Devon YFC with 188 points respectively.

In the Lamb section, the Lamb Carcase Overall Team was Katie Brian and Hannah Talbot from Worcestershire with 185 points and the Live Lambs Overall Team was James Stephens and Chris Waters from Gwent YFC.