Sarah Broom from Yarcombe YFC won the NFYFC Scotland Scholarship. Here she writes about her experience of farming in Scotland.
My two week Scholarship started in Edinburgh at the
beginning of June. From the airport I hopped on a tram
which took me reasonably close to the Hostel where I and
the other scholarship delegates were staying.
There were 14 of us in total travelling from all over the world from as
far as Australia, Canada and Switzerland.
Over the next three days we went on various farm tours and explored
Edinburgh. We were invited by SAYYFC for a drinks
reception and John Scott, a Conservative MP showed us
round the Parliament which was very interesting.
The next day we went on a trip to see the Kelpies, a
Scottish Landmark and spent the rest of the day touring
around the countryside. In the evening we all got dropped
off at a restaurant where we met a member from our host
family.
I was staying with Kayleigh who is the Secretary of
Biggar YFC. She lived on a mixed commercial sheep and
beef farm in Wiston near Biggar.
It was a beautiful area and very rural which I enjoyed. I was treated as one of the
family and felt very at home there.
For the rest of the week we went out with a different Club
within Lanarkshire each day. It was a great way to see the
different areas of the County and meet lots of different
YFC members.
I have so many highlights from that week.
One of them was visiting a hill farm just outside of Biggar
which stocked 6000 sheep and a herd of pedigree
Charollais cattle. It was a very different and vast
environment; it was really interesting to see and hear
how they farmed the hills.
A few of my other highlights from this week were
a tour around Tennent’s lager, taking part in a YFC
Stock Judging competition and visiting Edinburgh’s
Botanical Gardens.
We also went on a boat trip around Loch Lowman which was brilliant along with
a bike ride around an island followed by visiting a
very large dairy farm.
We finished off the two weeks visiting the Highland Show
back in Edinburgh. The show was a great end to our
Scholarship with plenty to see and do. Once the show was
over for the day we headed to the YFC Show Dance which
was a fantastic chance to say goodbye to everyone before
heading home.
The whole experience was a once in a life time trip.
Meeting like minded people from all over the world was
brilliant and getting to experience and see things that
you would never normally have the chance to see. It
was a great mix between sightseeing, tours, landmarks
and socialising.
If there is anyone out there thinking of
applying…DO IT! It’s a free farming holiday with amazing
people, what’s not to like?
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here