Wales YFC News

Wales YFC held their annual Conference and Agri Awards at Rosedew Farm, Llantwit Major on Saturday the 11^th of January 2025. They had an exciting line up of speakers that gave their insights on the topic of ‘Chancing on Success’. Jeff Evans a board member for CCF was the chair at the Conference and the  5 speakers were Nina Pritchard the Director of European Markets Sustainability for McDonald’s, Neil Burchell a Mentor for  Welsh Government  with the Food & Drink Wales Trade Development Programme, Emily Davies the Managing Editor for Just Farmers, Rhodri Davies from Rosedew Farm, and Lauren Evans, the Managing Director of Fablas Ice Cream.

Following a morning of insightful talks, members enjoyed a complimentary hog roast lunch by the Spitting Pig Company with some opting to go down for a walk along the beach before getting stuck in to the breakout sessions.

During the afternoon the attendees were split into 4 breakout sessions that were presented by the Spitting Pig Company, which gave an insight into their full-service event catering company specialising in outdoor cooking. The second break out session was led by Farmers Pantry and they gave members an insightful look at what makes Farmers Pantry a leader in local, sustainable food production. Food and Drink Wales lead the third break out session on the topic ‘Building a brand from scratch with some thoughts and ideas about starting up in the food and drink sector’. The fourth and final break out session was in the capable hands of Kirsty Tamilia a Calf & Youngstock Specialist at CCF.

Following the breakout sessions Rural Advisor launched the 2025 Rural Business Innovation Competition where members get the chance to win £1000 worth of business support and advice. The first workshop for the competition will be held on Thursday evening 23^rd January 2025 at 19:00 at the Wales YFC Centre in Builth Wells. To register your attendance, please click on the following link: Cystadleuaeth Arolesi Busnes Gwledig / Rural Business Innovation Competition

To close the conference The Welsh Farm Safety Partnership played a video emphasising why farm safety matters: protecting lives, livelihoods, and ensuring long-term success.

The Wales YFC Rural Affairs Committee are extremely grateful for every sponsor that helps make the conference possible especially the support received by CCF Farm & Country and the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust.

During the evening, the conference was followed by our second ever Agri Awards Evening with 13 finalists in the running for 6 awards. Evening guests enjoyed a delicious two course meal cooked by the team at Rosedew Farm. The meal was finished off with some Cheese and Crackers that had been kindly sponsored by Food and Drink Wales.

After the meal it was time to get down to business… The Awards!

Ryan Jones from Brecknock YFC and Gwern Thomas from Ceredigion YFC made the final for the Stock Producer of the Year Award kindly sponsored by Kepak, with Gwern Thomas taking home the trophy.

Emily Williams from Ceredigion YFC and Ethan Williams from Glamorgan YFC were shortlisted by the judges for the Best Diversification Award kindly sponsored by Mentera. Congratulations to Emily Williams who took first place with her Wedding Venue business.

Germinal sponsored the Best Grassland Management Award this year with Daniel Williams from Ynys Môn YFC and James Anstey from Glamorgan YFC making the top two. Congratulations to Daniel Williams for winning this category.

For 2025, Wales YFC were very excited to introduce two new categories to the award ceremony. Firstly, the Sustainable Dairy Stockperson Award which was kindly sponsors by Leprino Foods. Frances Evans and Iwan Owen both from Carmarthenshire YFC went head to head with Frances taking home the crown! The Mental Health Champion Award was also new for 2025 which was kindly sponsored by Samaritans and The DPJ Foundation. The judges narrowed the nominations down to the top three. Trisant YFC from Ceredigion, Elin Lewis from Montgomery YFC and William Meadmore from Gwent YFC. Congratulations to William Meadmore for his success in this category.

The last award of the evening was the Rural Champion Award which was kindly sponsored by CCF. Sian Lewis from Montgomery YFC came to the top in this category with Ella Harris from Radnor YFC coming second place.

There was one more award left to present. Over the last four months six members from across Wales have been competing in the Prime Pork Competition and it was time to find out the overall winner. A huge congratulations to Janet Evans from Ceredigion who was presented the Prime Pork Trophy by Julian Kelly from the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust. 

To end the night, our grand raffle was drawn with an amazing 20 prizes up for grabs. Wales YFC would like to thank all the businesses and organisations that had donated prizes for the raffle. £922.41 was raised during the raffle which will be split between our Chairs Chosen Charity British Heart Foundation and Wales YFC. Guests enjoyed a disco by DJ Will Roderick to end a great day at Rosedew Farm.

On the Sunday morning, members met for breakfast at the on-site Acorn Café before heading for a farm walk around Pancross Farm. The weekend was closed off with a Sunday Lunch back at the Acorn Café before everyone headed back home to all corners of Wales.

Wales YFC are excited to say that the conference was filmed by S4C and will be shown on Ffermio on 3rd February.