young farmers shearing evening

For the past year I’ve been involved with relaunching Braunton Young Farmers. The original club folded back in 90’s, but now there’s a new generation of 10 to 26 year olds keen to get involved, and over the past 12 months the club has been gaining momentum. Last Summer was full of shows and games,  in the winter we held stock judging competitions (over 30 members turned out to judge lambs in a freezing barn one January evening). But for the last couple of weeks the onus has been on sheep shearing. So one evening we hosted the shearing at Borough farm. The enthusiasm was amazing with 27 members turning up, 24 of whom had never shorn a sheep before!  Fortunately we had 5 experienced shearers on hand to help, and between 6 and 10 pm 40 sheep parted company with their wool, and left the shed looking quite neat and tidy considering the number of novice shearers.

But above all it was great to see so many of the local youngsters getting stuck in and learning a new skill, one which is notoriously difficult to master. The Young Farmers movement is nation wide, if you would like to find out more, this link takes you to the National Young Farmers web-site.

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