Charity supports Yorkshire farmers throughout Covid
With the Great Yorkshire Show back for 2021, it’s all go for the Harrogate-based team.
As well as delivering the Great Yorkshire Show, YAS, as a leading agricultural charity, supports farming and the countryside year-round by organising educational events for children and families, awarding small grants and promoting careers in agriculture. They also support the personal development of those already in the industry whilst enthusing and inspiring the next generation about farming, food and the countryside.
YAS also sponsors events and conferences – including this year's Yorkshire Post Rural Awards.
It’s great to be looking ahead with real optimism again after a tough year for the county’s farming community, explains Nigel Pulling, the Society’s Chief Executive.
“Farming families and rural businesses across Yorkshire have admirably risen to the challenges of the last 12 months, operating as key workers around the clock to produce and supply great British food whilst experiencing the same stresses as the rest of us during this disruptive and unsettling period,” he says. “We celebrated the role of farming families with our #FarmToFork campaign and it’s great to shine the light on these businesses again with the Rural Awards.”
The Great Yorkshire Show will return to Harrogate from Tuesday, July 13, to Friday, July 16, unless government guidelines change, with a four-day show for the first time in its history.
“Our year-round work as a charity that supports the farming community continues. We’re delighted to be planning for the Great Yorkshire Show after a year without agricultural shows; occasions that provide a much anticipated and welcome day out and social gathering for farmers and their families. Events like this have been sorely missed by so many people.”
The charity launched the Future Farmers of Yorkshire in 2010 to bring together like-minded farmers, vets and industry professionals and the group now has more than 1,000 members who are keen to expand their knowledge and excel in their careers.
They are currently developing a series of training opportunities and offering bursary places for topical industry events for their members as the industry prepares for the post-Brexit transition to new domestic agricultural policy.
The Society’s Women In Farming Network goes from strength to strength, in spite of several national lockdowns, with networking taking place online.
“We are building on the success of a network that uniquely brings rural women together,” adds Nigel. “The Women In Farming Network now has a growing online community via a Facebook group, and its Talking Heads video series is providing members with fresh perspectives from successful rural businesswomen.
“The Network is looking forward to bringing people together in person in the autumn, with its annual conference planned for October 12.”
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society supports farmers in many different ways, including educating over 15,000 school children a year, and it’s wonderful to be able to welcome people back to the Showground again, he says.
“We are proud of the way that we bring people together to inspire, enthuse and inform about the countryside, and we are looking forward to the coming months when the possibilities to do so become all the more abundant.”
Find out more at https://yas.co.uk/