Members' Blog

We caught up with Dominic Hampson-Smith the new Wales YFC Rural Affairs Chair for 2024-2025 to hear all about the upcoming opportunities that the Rural Affairs Committee have to offer YFC members over the coming months!

Baby Beef & Prime Lamb Competitions

Have you ever competed at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair? Would you like to give it a go? Why not compete in the Wales YFC Baby Beef or Prime Lamb Competition? 

To compete in the Wales YFC Baby Beef competition, you will need to show a beef calf no heavier than 425KG. The YFC class is split into heifers and steers, with a champion in both being able to compete in the Baby Beef Championship of the Winter Fair. The calves will be shown Tuesday morning following the open classes of the baby beef competition. If beef is not your thing why not give the Prime Lamb competition a try? Here you will need to produce a pair of lambs no heavier than 110kg combined. The lambs could be of any pure lowland breed, pure hill breed or pure continental breed. The lambs will be shown Monday afternoon split into the three classes mentioned above.  

In addition to both competitions, we ask members to produce a display board detailing information about the animals to include breed details, daily live weight gain, feed information and general husbandry for example.  

To enter the Baby Beef or Prime Lamb competitions please visit the Royal Welsh website and enter using their portal as you would to enter any of the open Royal Welsh Winter Fair competitions. 

Wales YFC ATV Challenge

If livestock isn’t your cup of tea why not enter our ATV challenge at the Winter Fair. You will compete on a course and fill in a questionnaire with the chance to win the use of a Quad Bike for a year through the kind sponsorship of Quad Bike Wales.

Wales YFC Lamb Initiative

Another great opportunity Wales YFC has to offer members is the Lamb Initiative. The Lamb Initiative is a partnership between Wales YFC, Dunbia (Llanybydder) and Sainsbury’s. Members are given a bonus of a pound on every lamb that reaches the specification. On top of this Sainsbury’s also donates 40P to Wales YFC with the contribution going back to the members county. There are collections centres across Wales that enable members to be a part of this scheme. Did you know you could still supply lambs into the scheme and claim the benefits up to the age of 40 if you become an associate member of Wales YFC.   

To find out more about the Lamb Initiative, please contact Wales YFC on materiongwledig@wales-yfc.org.uk or call 07852 715 379 for more information.

Wales YFC Agri Awards

We are very excited to announce that the Wales YFC Agri Awards will be returning for the second year with two new awards, the Mental Health Champion award and the Sustainable Dairy Stockperson award. All four of last years awards are also up for grabs, the Stockperson of the Year award, the Grassland Management award, the Best Diversification award and the Rural Champion Award. To apply for any of the six awards, please click on the button below. Applications will close on Sunday 20th October.

The 2025 Agri Awards will be held on Saturday 11th January 2025 at Rosedew Farm in Llantwit Major the night of the Wales YFC Agri Conference. Tickets and Accommodation will be on sale shortly.

Prime Pork Competition

The Rural Affairs Committee would like to congratulate all of the Prime Pork finalists. We look forward to following your pig rearing journeys over the coming weeks and to see them being shown at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair at the end of November. To find out more about the Prime Pork competition and to see our seven finalists, click on the link below.