Suffolk Young Farmers: APRIL started with a bang - literally - with our Easter Saturday Clay Shoot.

The weather, for a YFC event, was spot on. The new YFC BBQ had it’s first outing and, to my delight, managed not to burst in to flames. A sell-out on the BBQ for us is always a good sign of a great event and we ran out of food by 3pm. We had over 150 cards through the gate and the competition was pretty enthusiastic. The YFC competition was fiercely contended but the Stowmarket boys managed a sneaky 35 for one of their cards and took the trophy. The Open shoot was very well supported, thanks to everyone who came and to our friends in the shooting community for spreading the word. The High Gun in the Open class was a last minute 38 from D Parsons, followed by J Fulcher on 37 and joint 3rd place from D Arbon and J Firman. The Ladies class was won, following a shoot off, by Abi Arbon. The Colts class was won with a 29 from one of the YFC members Josh Denley and the Suffolk Show stewards class was battled out between Tom Over and Brian Barker. Anyone who regularly reads the County Life section of the EADT will be pleased to see that Brian isn’t in the photos this time and the glory goes to Tom Over.

Special thanks go to our sponsors Stuart Clay Traps, Shelbourne Reynolds and High Flyers for their excellent support as always. The event raised in excess of �700 for YFC which is brilliant.

After a rest of four days involving chocolate our next big fundraising event of April was the Suffolk Young Farmers Country Fair. Having spent most of the week looking at the weather forecast the day dawned brightly. I didn’t realise Easton Farm Park was subject to coastal breezes but the wind was definitely coming straight off the North Sea. We are a hardy bunch so a touch of the chills is fine for us and so, it seemed, for our competitors. Excellent entries in the Horse Show and Dog Show gave us a fantastic day. We were delighted to have the East Anglian Rare Breeds Support Group there showing us their livestock and how to show prepare them. Our ring was full of action throughout the day with brilliant displays from Five Rivers Dog Agility Team, Vintage tractors, PC Neil Smith and his amazing drugs dog Rigsby, Suffolk Punch Star, parade of hounds from the Easton Harriers, the fabulous Artisan Butcher Jamie Willows and our star attraction the Suffolk YFC Axe Boys. Full results are available on our website www.suffolkyoungfarmers.com under News.

As always we are extremely grateful for the sponsorship from Bentwaters Parks, Debach Enterprises, Atlas Fram, Procam, Ensors, Skinners Pet Feeds and Robinson and Hall.

We are delighted to have been awarded our Young Suffolk Quality Standard once again for our policies on Safeguarding, Health & Safety etc and have also managed to secure funding from Sport England for new equipment to complement our sports and comps programme – a BRILLIANT month for Suffolk YFC.

Onwards to May. We start our “Show Season” with Otley Big Day out today, and then on to South Suffolk Show, Hadleigh Show and finish the month with our annual rally, this year with an Olympic theme. Competitions included this year are flower arranging, cake decorating, Olympic Fizz, Lawnmower Display Teams, Egg Throwing inventions, pallet challenge, digger driving and much more.

Have a fantastic month and we wish our good friends in Essex YFC a fantastic show on 20th May. A great day out and a showcase of Young Farmers at their very best.