Members' Blog

In October, myself and 3 other members of Wales YFC made our way to Northern Ireland for the second annual YFC 5 Nation Conference. Having heard nothing but praise by last year team I couldn’t wait to see what this year’s hosts Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster had in store for us… and I can assure you I wasn’t disappointed!!

On Wednesday 16th of October, we all made our way over to Crawfordsburn Scouts Centre just outside of Belfast towards Bangor, this would be our home for the next few days of adventures and activities. 

The first night was a relaxed social evening spent getting to know the delegates from YFCU, NFYFC, SAYFC & Macra na Feirme, it was great to see everyone mix and find common ground and get along instantly.

Thursday would give us plenty of opportunities to further get to know each other, develop as a team and focus in on the theme of the conference which was Rural Leadership. The day was filled with activities such as archery, crate climbing and an apprentice style challenge. During the challenge we would be split into two teams and set with a task of developing our own companies making Farls, a traditional Northern Irish Soda bread, within the team we got the opportunity to best utilise everyone’s skills in different areas such as baking, finance & marketing, before pitching our product to a judge who would decide on the winner.

During the evening every organisation had an opportunity to give a 5-minute county showcase, where we would get the opportunity to lean a bit about the organisations, various traditions and phrases within their countries, and try some of their food and drinks. Seeing as it was the Eisteddfod weekend in many counties, we decide to give everyone a small tase of a few traditional competitions such as recitation and some “dawnsio gwerin” along with some short Welsh lessons and Welsh cakes to finish.

We then finished off the evening by getting our dancing shoes on again for some jiving lessons, where it quickly became apparent my dancing skills do not extend much further than the Hokey Cokey! Despite this a fun night of Jiving and Line Dancing was had by all… and if any one is looking for further line dancing tips I highly recommend asking Deryn for a demonstration!

No young farmers trip would be complete without a farm visit, and on Friday we got the opportunity to visit 3 businesses on the Ards Peninsula, which all had diversified from more traditional farming business into different markets in order to secure their futures. First off was Clandenboye Estate, where we had an opportunity to see their yoghurt making facility and try some of their award-winning yoghurt, as well as the farm where they milk their own cows for yogurt production in order to secure the best price for their milk. We then visited Lyttle Leaves a vegetable growing business specialising in Scallions and Leeks, the business was ever developing in order to improve efficiency, and it was a real eye opener to see the process of getting the product from field to fork, and we also had the opportunity to try some excellent homemade Leek & Potato Soup. The Day of tours was finished of with a quick lunch at Echlinville Distillery, followed by a tour of the distillery where we learnt about the process of making Gin and Whiskey.

Saturday morning, we all participated in a leadership workshop where we got the opportunity to learn about different leadership styles and which one best described our individual style, we also were set out the challenge of making a difficult group decision which highlighted the various styles within the group.

After lunch we set off for a walking tour of Belfast where we got to see some of the sight and visit the Oktoberfest, before finishing off with food in Robinsons bar before heading back to Crawfordsburn Scouts Centre to enjoy our final night together.

Sunday we all went our separate ways and set off on the long journey home, extended by the stormy weather condition, but this gave more time to reflect on what had be an excellent few day.

As with any YFC trip the places you visit and experience you gain are unforgettable, but the true highlight of any trip is the people you meet and friends you make in all parts of the world, and I’m sure Rhys, Angharad and Deryn would all agree that we made plenty of new friends that week and the knowledge and experiences shared will help develop all of us as individuals as well as give us the opportunity to develop the YFC experience at every level.