Marking a century of New Deer YFC

Back in April, an anniversary committee made up of past and present members organised events to celebrate this historic year, including the creation of a booklet to showcase 100 years of the club and its achievements. In order to create this, the club are in the process of asking for donations and would like to thank everyone who has donated so far – as well as the raffles that have been donated for their end of year ball.

New Deer YF can trace the origins of the club back to 1922, making it one of the oldest young farmers clubs in Scotland. It was called a Discussion Group to start with, then the Young Farmers title came in the mid-1930s. The club was founded in 1922 by college advisor, Mr D Munro, for 'young farmers and young farm labourers'.

At the Diamond Jubilee held in 1972, founder Chairman George Milne of Coulterna, Maud – who was the sole survivor of the original committee – commented in the booklet at the time and help embellish it with valuable information from the early years.

On the arrival of the second World War in 1939, all meetings were cancelled but members did their bit for the war effort by assisting the New Deer Show Committee, in aid to help raise funds for the Red Cross. Meetings recommenced in 1945 and have only been postponed again for two other reason – during Foot and Mouth and the Covid pandemic.

In the late 1940s, membership reached over 300 and it was known that if you were not down on time for a meeting at New Deer Public Hall then the doors were often shut early as the hall had reached its capacity. Although today mainly through depopulation of the countryside, members have fallen greatly to around 20, New Deer are still a strong club with the same determination and skills to compete in many Young Farmers competitions with recent successes including:

• Boys tug of war team qualifying at Cornhill Games to pull at the Royal Highland Show.

• YFC rally held at Fettercairn where the club placed second in the 'small club' section and fourth overall.

• New Deer Show: first and second in the mixed stockjudging competition and first in the ladies class, second in the pagent, as well as most points in the YF Baking and Handicraft section.

• Turriff Show: third in stockjudging teams competition and third in the individual round.

Events organized to celebrate this momentous year included a farm tour by kind permission of Haddo Estate, Tarves, where Mark Andrew led a very interesting walk around the farm, estate, sawmill and hydro scheme. He explained all the different aspects to the estate for which he has been factor for over 30 years. The day ended with a hog roast at New Deer showground.

Upcoming anniversary events to look out for include an anniversary stockjudging and valuation by kind permission of Harry and Helen Brown at Auchmaliddie Mains, Maud, Peterhead, with the celebrations ending with the New Deer YFC's 100th Anniversary Ball, which will be hosted at Banff Springs Hotel, Golden Knowes Road, in Banff.

The club would like to give credit to all past and present members for the effort that has gone into keeping New Deer YFC moving forward, and for the club to be able to look back on all it's achievements. We would also like to join together and celebrate the club reaching this historic moment and wish the current members every success to encourage not only young farmers, but young people from non-farming background to come and join the club and be introduced to rural Scotland.

Our aim is to keep the club going for future generations and allow them the experiences and fun that we have experienced being part of New Deer YFC – which is all about feeling part of a team, making lifelong friends and often meeting our future partners. So...here's to the next 100 years.

Ticket information for the Anniversary Ball can be found at the following: Lorna Beaton, 07803255041; Gail Leggat, 07774311510; Claire Brown, 07775338950.