YFCs win £500 after producing BVD-eradication videos

Three Welsh YFC clubs have been awarded cash prizes of £500
Three Welsh YFC clubs have been awarded cash prizes of £500

A BVD eradication programme has reached out to young farmers to help raise awareness of the disease through informative videos, awarding cash prizes of £500 to those who produce the best content.

With support from Wales Young Farmers Club (YFC), young farmers from across Wales were encouraged to take part in the Gwaredu Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) programme with the chance of winning £500 for their club.

Entries were submitted in both Welsh and English, with one prize available for each version submitted.

BVD is a highly contagious viral disease in cattle caused by the pestivirus. The virus is maintained within a cattle population by animals Persistently Infected (PI) with the disease.

Initially only awarding two clubs with cash prizes, the judges, which included Gwaredu BVD, Allflex UK and Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, were torn between three entries.

In the end, the groups decided to add an extra £500 cash prize in to the fund – meaning an additional club received an equal cash prize for their efforts in the competition.

Cffi Caerwedros in Ceredigion won best Welsh entry, whilst Cffi Bro Ddyfi in Powys and Maendy YFC from Cowbridge came away with £500 each for their English entries.

Each submission displayed knowledge of the Gwaredu BVD programme, produced high-quality content and all achieved a high engagement rate across their social media channels.

John Griffiths, Project Lead at Gwaredu BVD said: “Knowing young people are on board with us is what’s really important; not only are they helping us raise awareness of the disease and its implications, but they’re keen to do more to help both the farming industry and animal health and welfare across the country.”

He added: “I’m very proud to see young people be so engaged, and I am delighted to reward an additional cash prize to show our thanks to the support we’ve received.”

Also judging the winning entries, Matt Yarnall at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health added: “This competition is a fantastic way of not just engaging the next generation of farmers in BVD control, but also does a great job at spreading the word about the Gwaredu BVD programme.

“The storylines were great, with solid technical content, and the case study approach that several submissions took were particularly hard hitting. Each submission did a really good job at getting the message out there and producing content that people wanted to view.”

John Griffiths visited the Wales YFC field day on 27th April to present each winning club with their £500 prize.