Members' Blog

The NFYFC national stockman finals included the highest scoring members from Wales and the six areas of England. On Thursday 29^th August, we all joined a Zoom call to complete an online ‘Animal Health and Husbandry Questionnaire’ and a ‘Meat Identification Questionnaire’. The Animal Health Questionnaire was a familiar layout to me, being similar to what we are given at County competitions. Meat cut identification was slightly different; we were given 20 photographs of different meat cuts, and had to identify them as one of three multi-choice answers. If you overlooked some technical problems mainly relating to Wifi connections, it was definitely worth getting the questionnaires done on a separate day, it was good to know that 200/600 points had been decided and I could then focus on stock judging only from then on.

On Sunday 1^st September, 20 junior competitors met at Harper Adams University, where we judged a ring of four breeding ewes, four dairy cows, four butchers pigs and four butchers beef animals. The quality of stock was really high which made our job difficult, and with only 10 minutes to see the stock and 5-10 minutes to write reasons we really had our work cut out! After we had finished, the Master Judges gave their sets of reasons which was really useful. You always pick up a tip you weren’t expecting, and one judge confessed to docking anyone without all four buttons of their white coat buttoned up a point in style and ability. Not something I had come across before!

Luckily, my points in the breeding ewes, pigs, beef and questionnaires managed to dilute my weaker dairy performance and I was lucky enough to come first in the overall Young Stockman of the Year by two points. Both senior and junior winners received a Rutland electric fence energiser kindly donated by the overall sponsor for the day, Kerbl UK. An unexpected surprise!

Next was the Five Nations Stock Judging Competition, held at the Westmorland Show at the County Showground in Cumbria on Wednesday 11^th September. This time, slightly further to go and as part of the Intermediate Welsh team. We were supposed to compete against the English, Scottish, Northern Irish and Southern Irish teams. However, in the intermediate class, only Wales and England sent a team. Four members from Wales and four from England competed once again, in rings of breeding ewes, butchers lambs, beef cattle and dairy cows.

It was a great experience, judging Dorset breeding ewes for the first time, and being in the main cattle ring to judge parading dairy and beef cattle. There was some confusion with the beef, where all competitors judged the supplied beef shorthorn heifers (part of the societies national show entries) according to butchers specification, and probably offended the Judge, who had judged them according to breeding potential! But overall, everyone came away grateful to the Westmorland Show Society for fitting us into their busy schedules, and to the exhibitors who donated their time and high quality animals for us to judge.

We then completed the ‘Vet task’ part of the competition, which took a slightly different format to what I had done previously. Questions ranged from matching Veterinary instruments to their uses, to matching poisonous plants to their effect on certain livestock. It made a welcome change from a sit-down exam paper, but wasn’t quite what I had expected or prepared for!

Wales dominated the overall results, I came first in the Five Nations Individual Young Stockman of the Year, with Welsh team members taking 2^nd and 3^rd also. Overall, the intermediate Welsh team of Angharad Evans (Ceredigion), Sion and Manon Roberts (Carmarthen) and me (Radnorshire) beat the English team by over 200 points to come first overall as a team. The senior Welsh team had similar success, taking overall individual 1^st prize and overall senior team prize.

Massive thanks should go to the Westmorland County Show Society for their generosity in hosting us during the show. We all had complementary buffet lunch on judging day and free entry to both days of the show. They also supplied an impressive line-up of stock for us to judge and made sure the whole day ran smoothly. The Westmorland Agricultural Society kindly donated a glass memento to the winners of each age group, and Ariat donated a £140 voucher to winners to buy a new pair of boots. Their contributions really went above and beyond our expectations!

After what seemed like endless team photographs alongside sponsors and show officials, it was great to find a nearby bar with some of the competitors and meet up with the Cumbria YFC Vice-President and some of the Master Judges that we had met earlier in the day to celebrate Welsh success!

I really enjoyed competing in both competitions, and my advice to anyone considering starting stock judging is to just have a go. It’s really good practice for improving stockmanship and public speaking skills at the same time. If it doesn’t go to plan, go back and have another go, there wouldn’t have been a single competitor at either final that hasn’t totally mis-judged something sometime! Trying to find training from older members or club contacts is definitely recommended to put you on the right track. And don’t underestimate the importance of the Vet Questionnaire, it is a major contributor to the overall score, and a good way to secure high points.