We have increased our membership by 40% – now that’s one inflationary figure worth celebrating!

Covid was hard on Young Farmers with isolation from lockdowns, the cancellation of many events, and of course this affected cash flow and membership. As one would expect from YFs, they just got on with it and many of their events and meetings became virtual and they met up in person when circumstances permitted.

It’s a new world now, and it was great to see a year of new projects and events with members having fun. The activity throughout the organisation has led to the growth in membership from 2500 to 3500 in the past year and that number is expected to rise even more on the back of a drive to develop our offering for members.

With our new national structure, we have a fresh focus on how we raise funds, celebrate success, grow our organisation and help even more young people in rural communities be the very best form of themselves that they can be.

It has been an exciting year for SAYFC. A year of many 'firsts' and achievements. Some examples:

• The creation of a National Junior Committee aimed at ensuring we remain relevant to our youngest members, the future of YFs.

• The building of a gender-neutral approach to rules and competitions.

• A year where SAYFC invited young farmers from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland to compete in a new 'Five Nations' stock judging competition.

• An impressive 62 clubs competed in the National Bale Art at the start of October which helped to promote the newly formed organisation, Farm Strong.

• A large sum of £80,000 has been raised by clubs for local communities and charities!

It is brilliant to see that, despite SAYFC facing challenges, it is developing in exciting and positive ways. With our membership figure now at a healthy level, we look to progress SAYFC’s offering and drive the organisation forward in 2023 and we have no doubt that there will be many firsts and achievements yet to come!

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At the start of the new year, our new training programme for all board of trustees and future board of trustees will begin, focusing on developing skill sets and driving strategy forward. A membership card section will be added to the SAYFC app, providing our members with fantastic discounts for businesses who wish to be involved and we will be adding a stockjudging scoring section to the app which will reduce the amount of administration required to hold stockjudgings.

We will also be launching our international travel programme and we have an array of travel opportunities available for our members in 2023. Some of our trips include travelling to India, Croatia and Japan, and we have an exciting new Five Nations Conference, where members from SAYFC, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland will be invited to a four-day networking and development event hosted by us.

The travel opportunities are one of the amazing benefits of being a member of SAYFC and I encourage our members to apply – you will meet new people, broaden your horizons, develop as a person, and will have great fun!

The National Competitions weekend has been revamped and we are looking forward to welcoming our members to Carlisle, on February 24-26, for this event which will then lead us into agm season where the national committees have developed a new approach to their meetings.

To ensure we are representing the views of members at every level of SAYFC, the national committees have decided to open up committee positions to all members through the form of an application process, so if you are interested in being involved please do apply.

As you can see, SAYFC has many exciting projects for 2023 and all of these brilliant ideas happen as a result of the efforts of our members and it is fascinating to think where this organisation could go in future years.

Many of you were once involved in YFs and we continue to be supported and influenced every day by those who went before, who pass on their legacies in the form of helping us to hold, host, finance, train and judge events. We thank you all.

We are constantly aware that our job is to pass it on in a manner that ensures the organisation is stronger and more relevant as each year passes.