April is always an incredibly hectic month in Young Farmers, with the countdown to our annual convention in Blackpool and our Country Show, but this April was the busiest I’ve ever known it!

I hope most of you have heard about the release of our charity single, “Put That Hoedown”, which is officially released today, May 5. It has been available to pre-order on iTunes and a CD version will follow shortly on Amazon.

Our music video on Youtube has already received, at the time of writing, 55,000 hits which is incredible, but we now need people to convert those views into sales of the single, to raise money for our two charities ? Young Minds UK and The Farming Community Network.

If everyone reading this story bought a copy, we would be well on our way to achieving our ambition of getting into the UK Top 40 by Sunday, May 11 It is only 79p on iTunes, so please help us and our charities by ordering a copy!

We have had supportive comments and messages from around the world about the video, and lots of past members of the federation have expressed how it brought back memories from their time in Young Farmers. If you are unfamiliar with the federation, take a look at our Youtube channel to get a basic idea of what we get up to.

On Friday, May 9, around 5,000 Young Farmers from around the country will descend on Blackpool for our annual convention. This is a weekend of fun, laughter, partying and meeting new friends from other counties. We hope this year we will be able to spread the word about our song to boost our fundraising efforts.

As soon as we arrive back from Blackpool on the Monday we will be heading to our showground near Chelmsford to start preparing for the Essex Country Show on Sunday, May 18. This year we hope to have more people through the gate than ever before. Our show is a fun, family day out and if you haven’t been before, why not come along this year to see what you have been missing? Tickets can be bought in advance on our website at www.essexyoungfarmers.com or you can buy them on the gate, which opens at 9.30am.

If you would like more information on Essex Young Farmers and are considering joining, please give us a call on 01245 360442 or drop us an email to office@essexyfc.co.uk .

Remember you don’t have to be a farmer to be a Young Farmer; you just have to be aged 16 to 26 and keen to get involved and to meet new people!

Jess Roche