Food for Thought

It's been a bit quiet on here during the past week and the blame lies with a bunch of Young Farmers.

In a positive way, of course. It is just I have been tied up at the agm in Blackpool being thoroughly entertained by over 5000 YFC members.

It was a great weekend with clubs from all over the country meeting to compare notes, compare club shirts and boast about the size of their tackle.

And it struck me that as a group of young people - you couldn't meet a nicer bunch. OK there was a fair bit of beer consumed over the weekend and at times some groups were pretty noisy. But at no point did you get the sense that things were going to boil over into the kind of aggressive, violent behaviour that seems to characterise so many towns and cities.

They knew where the boundaries were and respected them in a good-natured way. A great bunch.

Entrepreneur and former TV Dragon Simon Woodroffe held an audience spellbound at The Future's In Your Hands, an event for young entrepreneurial people in agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

By Tim Relf, Farmers Weekly's Farmlife editor:

Wow, what a weekend.

I'm back in the office today after joining 4000 Young Farmers in Torquay for their annual convention.

It reminded me what a brilliant youth organisation the Young Farmers movement is.

It was action-packed and fun-filled, featuring everything from high-powered debates on the future of farming and drama contests to dancing competitions and some serious partying.

There was even an appearance by Radio 1's Chappers & Dave. You can see why 20,000 people in England and Wales - and 3000 people in Scotland - are members of Young Farmers groups.

You can read all the action from the event, or read my full blog

You can even watch a video of the highlights.