A young farmer from the Raughton Head club has gained what is probably the top accolade awarded by the YFC organisation at national level.
Cumbria YFC chairman Robbie Tuer faced stiff competition at the final of the senior member of the year competition run by the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs (NFYFC), but showed his quality to take a thoroughly deserved first place.
Robbie’s triumph came at the NFYFC national competition finals and 90th annual meeting held in Warwickshire on Saturday and Sunday.
“I’m always proud to represent Cumbria Young Farmers and am an advocate of promoting the National Federation Of Young Farmers to a broader demographic of people,” said Robbie.
“It was an honour to represent my home county and also the northern area against six other finalists. To come away with the senior member of the year trophy was the cherry on top of the cake that has been my time in YFC so far.”
Robbie was also delighted to win the Sydney Fawcett Trophy for the greatest contribution to the democratic proceedings of the annual meeting. He has great plans for his remaining seven months in office and is keen to give back to the organisation that has helped him achieve so much.
He is exploring ways in which a broader demographic can become involved in British agriculture, and hopes to collaborate with Multicultural Cumbria to explore and encourage young people of all ethnicities into agricultural groups such as young farmers.
Robbie added: “I believe there is a gap between agricultural communities and ethnic minorities across Cumbria and the United Kingdom and I would like to address this. The work I undertake will be trialled in Cumbria initially with a view to rolling it out at a national level over the coming years.
“It’s imperative that we promote the Young Farmers organisation to a broader demographic of people and educate the public about not only YFC but British agriculture in general.
“I hope to work in collaboration with NFYFC to find ways of educating young people in rural and urban schools and colleges about YFC and British agriculture and create training modules for people to do this at area, county or club level.”
