SHEFFORD YFC

Shefford YFC meets on alternate Wednesday evenings at Brightwalton Village Hall from 7.30pm until around 9pm (though venue and timings depend on what activity is taking place that week). Take a look at their 2023/24 news (below) to get a flavour of what Shefford YFC are about, or you can find out more by emailing the Club (click on the button below):


Shefford YFC 2023/24 News

By Georgina Tuggey – Club Chair 2023/24

Once again, we have had a great year as a club, from a fun packed programme to competitions and socials.

In early January we hosted our annual pheasant plucking meeting here at Brightwalton Village Hall.

This is always such a great meeting, and always quite eventful, with some of our members getting stuck in, and others sitting back and observing whilst they recover from the smell and goriness of the activity.

In between our next meeting, we hosted the county public speaking competition, which was a lovely day, filled with competition.

I had the pleasure of helping our two reading teams (One team included Ollie Mangen, Zellie Rich and Ruben Deevey and the second team included Honor Pilditch, Zoe Westropp & Georgia Evian) prepare in the run up to the competition, which both teams did extremely well at. Well done for pushing yourselves out of your comfort zone.

We have had a few talks over the last year, including a talk by The Mix, who are based in Wantage. This was a slightly smaller meeting and was an additional one to our programme. This was an informative evening understanding what The Mix did, and learning about sustainable Wantage, and the projects which they have in progress, like tree planting.

We also had a talk from the Berkshire Lowland Search & Rescue team, which was a talk, followed by a carousel of interactive activities which all members had the chance to take part in.

In addition to the hall-based meetings we have had a few visits, including a visit to Vine & Craven Hunt, which was a good opportunity for our members to see how the kennels are run daily. We were also invited back there in the Summer for a BBQ and a demonstration of the Puppy Show which takes place every year.

This year we have also had the opportunity to visit Farol at Shefford Woodlands. I think it would be fair to say this is probably one of our popular meetings not just with the members but also with the dads! Members were given half an hour to sit in the tractors, make lots of noise with the horns, which was then followed by a talk.

Alongside our meetings, our members have also had the opportunity to take part in various competitions, including sports, stockjuding, floral art, public speaking & show classes at the country fayre.

I just wanted to take this opportunity before I mention some of our successes this year, to say well done to every member who has competed in a competition this year and tried something new.

The Country Fayre is the highlight of the YFC year for each club across the County. This year, most of our members, had the chance to attend the Wurzels on the Friday evening before the show. As well as compete in various competitions on the Sunday, including practical classes on the day, and exhibitions which members prep before the day.

This year, Shefford won the float, which I think is the best part of the day for all of our members, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the parent helpers who helped decorate/ build the float.

I would just like to congratulate our cricket team, who placed first at county sports, and then progressed onto nationals with a few members from Newbury and placed first at Nationals.

This is an amazing achievement which you all should be very proud of. The cricket team, who joined forces with Newbury, included Eddie Pool, Henry Wilson, Minnie Brown, Louisa Brown, Lily Clayton.

I also would like to say a huge well done to Alicia Bosely who competed in the Beef and dairy stockjuding at Pre-show and placed very high.

In addition to this, Alicia also had the chance to compete at the Floral Art Finals at Malvern Show, after placing first at the Country Fayre this year.

Towards the end of the YFC year our final competition is Country Spotters; this is always a great excuse to wonder around a trail following the clues, it is an extremely hard competition – well the senior one certainly was last year! So, Emma & Polly did fantastically well and won this year – congratulations to you both.

In addition to our regular Wednesday meetings, I have been working to build on our older age group (from age 16-28). We have had a couple meeting this year dedicated to our older age group including a tour around west Berkshire brewery.

We also hosted our first new senior members evening in October, which included a game of rounders in the dark and a BBQ.

I hope to keep working on this so we have a stronger older age group, so for the forthcoming year, we will have two organised meetings, with visits to the pub in between every Thursday.

If you know anyone who would be interested in joining young farmers, aged 16-28 then please let us seniors know, as we will always welcome new members.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to all the efforts made by advisory over the last year, and the amount of work which happens behind the scenes, you have all been fab, and supportive

Shefford YFC Photo Gallery