Busy year for East Mainland Young Farmers Club

Founded in 1937, the club currently maintains 63 active members and promotes inclusivity with the motto ‘it’s not just for those who wear wellies’. Members come from diverse backgrounds, including farmers, jewellery makers, renewable engineers, and carers, all contributing unique ideas to the club’s varied summer and winter programs.

Throughout the year, the club engages in several main activities. These include the bi-annual concert competition, stockjudging, and sports for the annual rally, as well as pool, darts, bowls, and clay pigeon shooting. The club has excelled in speechmaking competitions, with juniors participating every year, gaining valuable skills whether they are new to it or experienced.

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Clay pigeon shooting is one of many activities in the summer syllabus

One of the club’s significant summer activities is silage pit coverings, which began as a one-off for a member but has since become a major fundraiser for the club which goes towards general running expenses. On average, this raises approximately £2500 annually.

The club now covers around 15 pits per year, having perfected the process to the point where they can cover larger silage pits in less than an hour.

The summer program is always packed with new and exciting activities, such as ‘Race across Orkney’, where members work in teams to travel from one end of the island to the other without phones and only £10 each.

This event was inspired by the BBC’s Race Across the World and saw members of the club hitch lifts or jump on a bus and engage with the Orkney Community to help get members from A to B. Four of the youngest members crossed the finish line first in an exceptional time of 2 hours 15 minutes, the last team finished in 3 1/2 hours, which is still a fantastic time covering at least 31 miles. Great fun was had by all the participating members and this activity will definitely take place again in the future.

Other activities include BBQs to bring club members together held at one of the local community halls with meat provided from the local butchers. In summer months we get together at the local agricultural shows where members seek to encourage the next generation of farmers to get involved. We have a stand at our local East Mainland Show with fun games such as Nail in the Bale, Bottle Stall, Darts Throw, Sponge Throw, Dunk Tank (for some poor unfortunate members) and a Penny Roll. This is a great attraction for the younger generation who we hope will one day become members.

Another enjoyable part of the summer syllabus is visiting the surrounding isles. Earlier this year the club visited Westray, where they performed their concert competition for the Westray community as well as enjoying a farm visit and a tour of the local bakery. A few weeks ago, members visited Hoy on a fine summer’s day, which are few and far between in Orkney this summer, where they toured the Island with the highlight being a visit to the Scapa Flow Museum.

The club also encourages members to compete in southern competitions such lamb dressing and speechmaking. At the Royal Highland Show members represent Orkney Young Farmers in the stockjudging competition with great success over the years. Despite living on an island, the team try to encourage members to compete at North and National level as much as possible.

At this time of year, the club are busy preparing for the Annual Rally which is one of the biggest days in the Orkney Young Farmers calendar. The Rally consists of stockjudging, flower arranging, baking, crafts and sports. In previous years, East Mainland have been a force to reckon with. It’s a great day’s competition rounded off with a prize giving and dance.