Royal Three Counties Show 2017

Last weekend I was at the Royal Three Counties show in Malvern. This was my third year of competing at Three Counties with Worcestershire Young Farmers and definitely my busiest!

After placing first in the Junior Photography & Junior Cookery at the Worcestershire Rally and placing second at the Junior Horse Stock Judging on pre-show competitions day, I was asked if I would like to carry all three competitions on at Three Counties. I have competed in Junior Cookery for Worcestershire for the last 2 years and it’s always a good day out so I said I would take them all on this year.

My photography entry, ‘Great Britain in Three Photographs’ had to be in on the Friday morning and luckily a friend was going to set up her afternoon tea so was able to take it down there for me. I packed all my stuff ready to take to Three Counties on the Friday evening and set off on Saturday morning ready to compete!

On my way to the show, I had a message from a friend saying that my Photography had come first, I was really pleased with this and it was a great start to the day.

My first competition on the day was the Horse Stock Judging, I ended up competing in the Intermediate category and I gave it a go. Stock Judging definitely isn’t one of my strongest competitions but I feel like I am improving! I didn’t place in this competition but I really enjoyed it and it was great to compete against members from different counties, everyone in YFC is always so lovely!

After this it was a quick dash back to the YFC tent to get ready for my cookery competition, it was a very hot day especially being in black trousers and a shirt and tie for stock judging! I made it to my other competition in time and even managed to get changed quickly. I was happy with how I cooked my dish and I felt it went quite well. I am really pleased that I managed to place second in the cookery!

Once my cookery was over, I had the rest of the day free to enjoy the show. I even saw Adam Henson in the YFC tent. We went over to the alpaca tent to watch them showing the alpacas - I spent this week at Simply Alpaca doing work experience (I will be writing this up in the next week or so) so I wanted to go and have a look at all the alpacas beforehand. It interesting to listen to the judge giving his reasons on the placings of the alpacas being shown, and it was lovely and cool in the tent so we stayed in there for a while… We went and looked in the pygmy goat tent too and one of the guys there told us that the goats love dried pasta as a treat! We will have to take some up for Will, Harry & Beattie and see how they get on with it. The goats at the show were lovely and they were very well behaved in the show ring!

The Three Counties Show was great this year and I’m really glad that I got to go again. Bring on next year!

Why I Love My Schoffel

A Schoffel gilet is the ultimate country piece, and I couldn’t live without mine! The Schoffel Lyndon is so durable and comfortable and I love to wear mine to the yard or out, as it can look really smart with a shirt - I love the Rydale shirts under a gilet.

However, it has come to a point where I will rarely leave the house without a Schoffel. It doubles as a handbag and usually has everything I need in it… When I’m at the yard it is my toolbelt and carries everything I need to lure the horses in or catch the goats. It can hold the scissors and bailing twine for fencing or a cornucopia of treats for dogs, horses and goats.

That’s what I love about good quality, purpose designed country clothing - it can be knocked about, chucked in the back of the car, washed over and over again and still look great.

A Schoffel is a perfect choice because it can be layered for warmth or worn as a lighter jacket, they are arguably the unofficial uniform of the countryside and it's easy to see why!

Pictured:

Schoffel Lyndon in Navy- http://bit.ly/2sqT1X0

Claudio Ferrici Purse- (No Longer Available)

Personalised Multitool/Pocket Knife - (Bought in Las Vegas)

Shires Lead Rope- http://bit.ly/2r82G0O

Kadence Hoof Pick- http://bit.ly/2reBqCa

Banana Horse Bix and Meadow Herb Treats- (From my Pocket!)

Poly Sheep Halter- (Bought in Keddies, Alberta, Canada)

Bath and Body Works Hand Sanitizer- (Bought in America)

Polo Key Chain- http://amzn.to/2rjNIEb

Old Navy Hair Bobble- (Bought in America)

A Yard Day in my Ariat Work Boots

Today we went up to the yard to do some jobs, I thought that I would wear my Ariat work boots seeing as it’s lovely and sunny (as I’m writing this I’m eating an ice lolly)!

We were having our main field harrowed today which meant a lot of moving the horses and goats into and out of the field all day. The boots were great because they are really comfortable and because they have a composite toe, it means that I didn’t have to worry about being stepped on by animals, which happens a lot on our yard…

The boots have really good ankle support which is essential in the field, especially when you have horses that churn up the ground and little goats that are always trying to trip you up! The goats are loving this sunny weather and Beattie is doing really well now, I can’t believe she has been with us for 5 months now! The boys are in the field with the two geldings and Beattie is in her own field with the mare and they are getting on really well.

I have had these boots for a couple of months now and I think that I’m going to get lots of use out of them as they are really comfortable. They are smart enough to wear to a show but also sturdy enough to wear on the yard or the farm, they are a perfect choice for this season…

If you want to order a pair, or just get a bit more information, they are available on the Ariat website and I will link them here.

* Disclaimer- This product has been sent to me from the manufacturer but all opinions are my own and are honest.

Worcestershire Young Farmers County Rally 2017 - #FabulousYoungFarmers

On Saturday, Worcestershire Young Farmers held our 69th annual county rally in Inkberrow. This year was my third rally since joining Young Farmers in 2015 and my last year competing as a junior as I turn 18 this year and will be moving into the intermediate age category… Rally is always great fun and brings lots of new challenges each year. 

This year I took on the Junior Cookery, as this has become a bit of a tradition for me now! The brief this year was a dessert to the theme ‘Around the World’. I ended up doing a selection of 3 desserts: a S’Mores Pie, a Tiramisu and a Berry Samosa. It was a real challenge to make all 3 in the time frame but I managed it in the end, and I think they proved popular with the judges as I managed to come first this year! This was a real surprise and a delight as I have come second for the last two years, it was great to finish competing as a junior on a high…

I also entered the photography competition this year and produced an A3 presentation board to the theme ‘Great Britain in 3 Photographs’... I hadn’t done the photography competition in the past couple of years so it was a new one for me, nevertheless, somehow I managed to come first in this too! 

I did a couple on the day competitions, one was to dress up another girl from my club as Adam Henson from Countryfile using recycled farm materials… In true young farmers style, this resulted in a quick trip to my yard on the morning of the competition (which was luckily only 5 minutes from the rally venue!) to pick up some feed bags and bailing twine to fashion an outfit out of. I don’t think that we really captured the true spirit of Adam Henson, but a gilet made out of an Allen & Page Calm and Condition bag and a skirt made out of a Spillers Happy Hoof bag was the best we could do in the time limit! There’s nothing like a young farmers’ competition to provide some quality entertainment! 

Wythall had some fabulous entries in the craft, bake off, cookery, needlework, floristry, woodwork and loads more… Our ladies tug of war team put up a good fight in the afternoon and our soapbox looked brilliant! 

There was some really stiff competition on the day, the Tug of War was particularly fierce this year with the Tenbury and Bromsgrove Ladies’ teams standing out as well as the Upton Men’s team - they’re like a machine! 

Well done to everyone who competed at Rally on Saturday, we really showcased Young Farmers and all we can do! Big congratulations to Upton Young Farmers - very well deserved winners of Rally 2017… Roll on next year’s competitions! 

It's a tough job feeding the world - a piece for Farmland

Lambing season is well upon us and for some of us, it’s nearly over. This year I have done my first proper bit of lambing and so far I have absolutely loved it! I also learnt a lot, some of which I feel could be transferred to the general public to make farmers lives so much easier…  

I was nervous and excited before I got there on my first day, as I had never met the farmer and all I had to go by were my instructions for getting there which rather mysteriously included “follow the music”. Anyway, I rocked up in my waterproofs and wellies ready to get stuck in. Within five minutes of being there, I had seen three lambs born and was already getting my first job on the yard. It had soon become very clear what this mysterious music was as they had the radio blasting out over the lambing shed. I spent the next two days lambing, filling water buckets, bedding down, moving ewes and lambs and assisting with injections. By the end of my second day I had delivered over a dozen lambs, a good few of them solo and I was feeling way more confident.

However, I have noticed that most people outside of the farming community have a very limited idea about what goes on during these crucial months in the farmer’s calendar. There is a limited amount of reliable information available about lambing time unless people venture into the wealth of farming journals and websites which they might not even know exist! The agricultural community on Twitter along with other social media provide a great insight into the world of farming, especially at this time of year. Although it could be considered subliminal messaging, all of the cutesy lamb photos provide a first-hand look in at lambing that many people may not get otherwise.

My lambing experience really brought home how important it is to educate people about farming as it really does impact the whole world. Things like keeping dogs on leads when walking through the countryside and closing gates to fields could make our lives easier if people were aware of the benefits. With the use of social media, we can educate more people to make lambing time easier on everyone. To quote the girl I was lambing with - It's a pretty big job, feeding the planet…

YFC Stock Judging 2017 - #FabulousYoungFarmers

Myself and Ruth from Farmer Ruth are starting a new collaborate series! It will be following on from my previous #FabulousYoungFarmers series I did when I interviewed some young farmers on my blog. This is my first instalment in the new lot of posts and Ruth will be sharing her first post shortly... I hope you enjoy reading about my Stock Judging I did just last weekend and that you will enjoy the new posts! 

On Saturday, it was the Worcestershire Young Farmers’ Pre-Show competition day… This is where the Livestock Judging and the Carcass Judging takes place as well as the sheep shearing.

Last year, I took part in the Junior Breeding Ewes competition and it was my first ever time stock judging. I really enjoyed it, even if I wasn’t the most successful but it was after all my first time! I wrote a blog post about it last year which you can find here. I also took part in the Senior Stockman of the Year competition already this year which you can read about here. So by this year’s pre-show day, I had competed in breeding ewes, butcher’s lambs, pigs, dairy cattle and beef cattle judging which left only horses for me to try out.

Feeling much more confident in my judging observations and my presentation of my reasons, I was keen to sign myself up for the horse category this year. I have been around horses my whole life so I thought that if I stood a chance at anything it should be horses.

Saturday quickly rolled around and I left early in the morning, with my shirt, tie, black trousers, white coat, riding hat and clean boots ready for a day of judging!

When we got there, me and the other girls from my club who were doing horses signed ourselves in and waited until they called our class to start. The first thing we had to do was the questionnaire that they had put together for the horse judging. I think it’s safe to say that we were all sufficiently challenged by it and there were definitely some tricky questions. The one that caused the most discussion had to be “In which discipline would you find a Trakehner?”. Those of you who are horsey will probably know that a Trakehner is both a breed of dressage horse as well as a cross country fence. After much discussion between the competitors after the questionnaire was over it became clear that half of the group had taken it one way and half had taken it the other, but much to all of our delight, the judges decided to allow both.

We then headed up the road to the riding school where the horses we were going to be judging were. The judges went in to look at them and decided that we were to judge them as family riding club ponies.

The juniors went in first and the horses were paraded in walk and trot for 3 minutes firstly, then we were allowed to handle them for a further 9 minutes. I placed them in an order I was fairly confident with and then started to finalise and practice my reasons.

We went back to the farm we were based on for the day to present our reasons, and once again the juniors were up first. Not wanting to stand around and forget what I wanted to say I volunteered myself to go up first. I went in and gave my reasons (probably too quickly as per usual) and came out feeling very relieved that I didn’t have anything else to do!

At the end of the day the results were presented and much to my surprise (and delight!) I had come second! It was a lovely day of competitions and well done to anyone from Worcestershire who competed… Bring on Rally!

Lambing Live 2017! Part Two

This week I have been lambing again… My last lambing placement was a very large scale, intensive indoor lambing set-up but I wanted to get some experience of lambing in a different setting. So I did what any young farmer would do and hopped onto the club group chat and started begging for work experience!

I eventually managed to get myself a couple of days lambing with one of the young farmers so I went there on Tuesday ready for a whole different kind of lambing…

I spent a lot of time riding around on the ATV and opening gates which is as to be expected when you’re lambing a fairly large flock outdoors. We moved lots of ewes and lambs in the trailer, I had already seen docking and castration at my indoor placement as well as marking the sheep. (For the record I don’t have a very good relationship with stock marker - last time I ended up with completely blue arms that made me look like I had been in a bad fight! This time I ended up with orange and blue arms, but it is nowhere near as bad as last time…) But this time I also learned about crutching the ewes to prevent maggots getting to them. At this farm, the crutching is done with hand shears after the ewe has lambed and before she is turned out with her lambs.

It is a lot harder to catch the ewes outdoors when they need help than it is indoors...

My favourite part of lambing (which is definitely not most farmers’) favourite part of lambing is the cade lambs. I absolutely love cade lambs. There was probably only a dozen or so at the time I was there but they are so playful and I loved feeding them.

I also helped to feed the ewes that were being kept in for various reasons (generally birthing complications) and give them water. They were being fed silage with pellets and I can tell you know that I have learnt the hard way that there are thistles in silage!!

Something really interesting, although not very pleasant, I saw was the technique of skinning a ewe’s dead lamb to make a jacket for a cade lamb. I’m sure that most of you know about this already but for anyone who hasn’t heard of this, I will run through my limited understanding of it…

A ewe that has lost a lamb can foster a cade lamb but sometimes she won’t take to it. If a ewe rejects a cade lamb and doesn’t have a dead lamb then the most popular option is to put the ewe in a lamb adopter (which I think is the sheep equivalent of stocks - as in the medieval kind), however if she does have a lamb that was stillborn or that didn’t make it you can use the skinning method. You have to try to remove the skin of the dead lamb in one piece with holes for the head and legs, ideally without getting any blood on it. Then the jacket that you have fashioned should be fitted onto the cade lamb you are adopting. This makes the lamb smell like one of the ewe’s own and thus she is more likely to accept it. You should aim to take the jacket off within 24 hours or so to prevent a smell… (If I have got any of this wrong please let me know!)

This way of lambing was quite different to my experience indoors but it was very educational and I feel that I have got a good grip on lambing now!