High Sheriff Meeting

Aug 3, 2021  •  General

The County and District Officers of Cumbria YFC were delighted to meet with High Sheriff, David Beeby and his partner Soo Redshaw at Penrith Cricket Club on Thursday 15th July at an event hosted by the Cumbria Community Foundation.

Cumbria YFC County President Judith Emmott, Cumbria YFC Chief Officer Joanne Mills, Kate Gascoyne, Farming Ambition Programme Manager for The Farmer Network and Claire Urquhart, Community Manager for Westmorland Ltd were also in attendance at what proved to be an interesting and insightful evening.

Cumbria Community Foundation has been keen advocates of Cumbria YFC, providing funding for a number of key projects over the last 2 years.  The successful Drugs and Alcohol Awareness Training was made possible with a £10,000 grant from the Foundation in 2019. During the pandemic, funding was also received which allowed young farmer clubs to take out a Zoom Pro subscription, enabling members to stay in contact with each other during lockdown.

In his dual roles of High Sheriff and Chair of the Trustees of the Cumbria Community Foundation, David was very keen to find out more about Cumbria YFC; how they had weathered the last 12 months and how the young farmers viewed the future of farming.

Neil Curr, Cumbria YFC County Chair gave a thoughtful and in-depth presentation, created especially for the evening in collaboration with County Vice Chair, Sarah Emmott. The presentation also included input from County Vice Chair, Robbie Tuer, Northern District Chair and Vice Chair, Emma Blaylock and Abigail Graham and Southern District Chair and Vice Chair, Jess Rogerson and Emily Armer.

The Officers talked knowledgably and enthusiastically about young farmer activities, events and competitions as well as explaining the democratic structure of the organisation. David, who proudly comes from a farming background, was interested to hear about the officers’ individual young farmer experiences and careers as he had also been a young farmer and member of Ruddington YFC in his younger days.

The meeting ended with a light-hearted discussion on which county was the best Young Farmer Club in the country. As Cumbria YFC had won the NFU Trophy for the county scoring the most points in competitions in 7 out of the last 9 years there was really no contest, with Cumbria YFC coming out on top.