The Suffolk Show came around so quickly this year and the weather was not going to stop the young farmers from enjoying themselves, writes Suffolk Young Farmers co-ordinator Tory Lugsden.

East Anglian Daily Times: The seniors in action showing their cattle at the Suffolk Show.The seniors in action showing their cattle at the Suffolk Show. (Image: Archant)

The first day of the show is busy on the Young Farmers stand with our “pull a pig” challenge alongside our stand promoting the federation to potential new members.

Wednesday afternoon was the finals of the senior young farmers tug of war competition. As always it was fiercely contended with our Hadleigh men’s team taking the win with Bury St Edmunds second, Stowmarket third and Debenham fourth.

Our final event of the Wednesday evening was the all important mascot race and once again this did not disappoint. The banter between Supermoo and Tractor Boy has been building and all that mattered to the Young Farmers was that we finished above Tractor Boy! Well done to our boy Sam for taking on Supermoo’s mantle. I think his hard work in the tug of war made his feet slightly slippery as Supermoo had a bit of bother staying on his feet!

Thursday at the show is known as Charlotte’s day amongst the young farmers and we use the day to celebrate all that is great about Young Farmers and all that Charlotte Cobbald, one of our former members sadly lost nearly two years ago, represented. This year was no exception with the young farmers being asked to add another ring display to the Presidents Ring. This year “The Spirit of Young Farmers” included the finals of our junior tug of war competition and our latest sporting venture, Lawnmower Polo. The junior clubs of Gipping Valley and Brett Valley took on the tug of war challenge with the strength of Gipping’s members giving Brett a run for their money. Well done to Gipping – Charlotte would have been so proud of their club.

The lawnmower polo was noisy and they were quick. It was a shame that only two of the competitors made it to the start line but it was a good display; let’s hope next year Bury’s lawnmower has got either better brakes or the county staff get out of the way quicker!

The finale of the day was Charlotte’s stockpersons competition which included a junior competition this year. We had a great day of competition including livestock management questions, stockjudging of dairy cows and the grand finale of showing dairy cattle (without them running away!). Our huge thanks to John Smith and all of the other dairy cattle stockmen for lending us their cattle to play with and to our judge Graham Ellis of Stanfords Livestock Market. A massive well done to Alice Partridge of Hadleigh Young Farmers for winning the senior competition with Hamish Beaton of Ashdon and Saffron Walden in Essex as runner up. Our junior competition was won by Beth Maskell of Brett Valley with Olivia Scott of Gipping in second place.

And so we carry on with June, starting with Fram Farmers Wheat Competition judging this weekend and our annual rally on June 11, followed by our second tractor run on June 19 and our fundraising muck move from June 20 to 27 – phew, roll on summer for a rest!