SO MUCH for hoping to have seen the last of the cold weather in last month’s report, but that hasn’t stopped March being one of our busiest months.

Stowmarket YFC continued on their fund raising mission with a muck spreading marathon taking place at Farnham. The team spread 1,600 tonnes of muck over a day, raising £1,000 for their nominated charities of St Elizabeth’s Hospice and Help for Heroes. Thanks to Fork Rent, Agri Hire, Thurlow Nunn Standen and Manns of Saxham for their kind support.

Our biggest event of the month was the first part of the year’s rally. With huge thanks to the staff and tutors from Otley College, we held a traditional competitions day, going back to the basics of YFC, along with a few less traditional contests.

The bricklaying competition was a brilliant event and it was great to see our youngest members from Brett Valley taking the brick- laying glory. Other competitions included welding which was judged by the boys from A N Fabrications who were so impressed with the winning weld from Craig of Halesworth YFC that they even offered him a job!

The tractor handling competition was a little bit nerve wracking for the senior steward, Ed Binder. Having been “driven” by Ele Williamson, from Gipping Valley Juniors, Ed was heard to say: “I’ve never been so frightened, my legs are still shaking”.

The NFYFC competition of Ultimate Frisbee was a little tricky, with a side wind resulting in a couple of first aid incidents; who’d have thought it would be Frisbee that ended up in accident report forms?

Cookery, flower arranging, cake icing, crop identification, girls’ wheel changing, chainsaw bar flips, efficiency with safety and bygone tool identification also all took place during the day.

The highlight, however, had to be the precision car driving competition. As always, Tricky Tom of Debenham YFC managed to produce a spectacular invention and this one was definitely his finest.

An innocuous Ford Fiesta arrived under cover. The sting in its tail was that the steering wheel was on the roof and when you turned left the car turned right. The teams were amazed and this is yet another example of YFC at its very best.

It was a brilliant day despite the chill. Well done to Hadleigh YFC for once again taking the senior points and to Gipping Valley YFC for the juniors. Rally Part 2 in June is going to take some work to rival Part 1. Thanks to all of our judges and supporters it was a great day.

Easter Saturday saw our annual clay shoot at Stowlangtoft by kind permission of David Johnson. High gun was taken by C Childerhouse on 39, with our favourite regular supporter Tony Rogers coming second on 38 and D Arbon in third on 37.

The ladies shoot was won by Abi Arbon, the colts by A Harvey with a massive 32 and the Suffolk Show stewards by Ben Goldsmith. Our thanks go to Stuart Clay Traps, High Flyers and Shelbourne Reynolds for their very kind sponsorship.

And so to April and our biggest fund raising event of the year, the Suffolk Young Farmers Country Fair on Sunday, April 21 at Easton Farm Park between 10am and 5pm.

There will be a horse show, dog show, vintage tractors, ring displays, dog agility, gun dog scurry, a forestry arena, side attractions, tradestands, food and much,much more. Entry costs £5 for adults, with under 16s and parking free. Full details are available at www.suffolkyoungfarmers.com. We look forward to seeing you there.