Well I can’t start this article without mentioning that once again Tractor Boy fell at the final hurdle, literally, to take second place to Suffolk Young Farmers’ all new mascot Super Sheep in the Suffolk Show Mascot Race.

East Anglian Daily Times: Senior Suffolk Young Farmers have been hard at work hauling muck to raise funds.Senior Suffolk Young Farmers have been hard at work hauling muck to raise funds. (Image: Suffolk Young Farmers)

Obviously we aren’t gloating at all about this having been the victims of ruthless banter in the past.

Following the show we went straight to our Summer Festival held at Debach Airfield by kind permission of the Taylor family.

What a fantastic day we had in beautiful sunshine and the competition was fierce as always throughout the day. Competitions included bubble football, rounders, ultimate Frisbee, tag rugby and old school competitions. A great day for all clubs but the junior clubs couldn’t be separated and the win was taken jointly by Gipping Valley and Brett Valley. The senior competitions win for Hadleigh YFC again means they continue to have success in all competitions this year.

George Halsall continued with Hadleigh’s winning streak taking the Wheat competition win for the club. Our massive thanks must go to Ben Larter of Plant Larter Farms and Adam Williamson of F G Taylor & Sons. There is still ongoing negotiation on the winners of the Junior competition so watch this space.

Rachel Cooper and Beth Maskell represented Suffolk at the Eastern Area finals of the junior stockman of the year on one of the hottest days of the year and we were delighted with Beth taking 3rd place. This weekend, and by the time this goes to press, Beth will also be representing Suffolk and Brett Valley at the National finals of the Junior Member of the Year competition and we cannot wait to hear how she gets on. In our eyes she is totally unbeatable and nobody has ever put as much effort into her young farmers career as this young lady. She is an absolute credit to Suffolk YFC and her parents and we could not be prouder to call her one of ours.

Over the past week the senior members have been hauling muck for fundraising purposes and the team headed up by Jake Spatchett and Mark Dickson have pulled out the stops for our biggest muck move ever. We are so grateful to them and to their teams of members for being professional, well organised and working so hard to raise so much money for the federation. Our biggest thanks go to our amazing machinery dealers, Agri hire, P Tuckwell, Ardent Hire, Ernest Doe Power (Fram and Marlesford), Phil Liverton and TNS Ltd for so kindly lending us the machinery to put on such a huge fundraising effort. We also would like to thank the farmers from Kerr Farms, F G Taylor & Sons and Gressingham Ducks for their huge support.

For us the year starts to calm down with rumours of combines starting next week so from all at Suffolk Young Farmers we wish you all a happy, successful and, most of all, safe harvest.