Young people aged ten to 26 have been developing key agricultural and rural skills so they can compete in the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs’ (NFYFC) competition finals this Saturday.

The event, at Staffordshire County Showground, will involve more than 500 finalists competing in 13 different competitions.

It is one of the highlights of the year for members of Young Farmers’ Clubs (YFCs).

A new auctioneering competition has been added to the competitions programme this year where finalists will be asked to value and auction three items for a mock auction. The competition will be run like a standard auction with members of the audience able to bid on the items.

Competing teams have been practising for this competition at County and Area rounds before winning their place in the national final.

NFYFC is also running a farm skills competition aimed at improving YFC members’ agricultural proficiencies and farm safety awareness. As well as first aid tasks and challenges involving a road vehicle and flat bed trailer, competitors will also be asked to work with an ATV to hitch and lead a trailer.

The Farm Safety Foundation’s Yellow Wellies campaign will also be supporting a hazard perception section of the competition where teams will be asked to highlight safety issues when working at height and with machinery and power cables.

The European All-Terrain Vehicle Safety Institute (EASI) will be running an ATV skills test and participants will be in with a chance of winning a pair of VIP hospitality tickets to a choice of British superbike or British touring car championship race days for one of the remaining races in the 2019 calendar.

YFC members will also compete in a fence erecting competition and a clay pigeon shooting competition.

As well as the more traditional agricultural competitions, YFC members will also be competing in a range of public speaking competitions and a cube exhibit created to the theme of children’s television.

During the afternoon, spectators at the event can enjoy NFYFC’s ballroom dancing and show choir competitions. Teams from across the country will perform to impress professional judges.

Ballroom dancing competitors must perform a routine that could open a dancing show, such as Strictly Come Dancing.

NFYFC’s competitions chairman Dewi Parry, from Clwyd FYFC, said: “This year’s Competitions Day is set to be a spectacular showcase of the amazing talent that we have in YFC. Young rural people from across England and Wales, aged from ten to 26, will be demonstrating their skills in a wide variety of tasks and showing that YFC is an organisation that teaches skills for life."