National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs

The National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs (NFYFC) is a rural youth organisation in the United Kingdom. The Federation covers various Young Farmers' Clubs (YFCs) throughout England and Wales, helping support young people in agriculture and the countryside. It does not include YFCs from Scotland or Ireland.

The role of the games secretary is to liaise with other clubs in their county to organise competitions such as pool and darts for the home AND AWAY games.

The first Young Farmers' Club opened in 1921 in Hemyock, Devon, where the United Dairies milk factory set children of the area's milk producers the task of calf rearing, with competitions and prizes for those achieving the highest standards.

Over the next decade more clubs opened to provide agricultural education, with the focus on the keeping of growing and living things including calves, pigs, poultry, bees and gardens.

After the death of one of YFC's original founders and greatest inspirations, Lord Northcliffe, in 1922 the Ministry of Agriculture took on development of the organisation. But within six years it was proving difficult for it to offer the type of help needed by the members to organise the 50 clubs or offer guidance on the rural social role Young Farmers' Clubs were assuming.

In 1929 the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) stepped in with the goal of developing YFC as a voluntary, self-governing and self-generating organisation.

The National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs was formed in March 1932, with its head office in London.

New clubs sprang up in Scotland, Northern Ireland and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand and by the outbreak of the Second World War, the federation included 412 clubs and 22 county federations with a membership of 15,000 people.

The war years marked a turning point for YFC with the development of agricultural classes and proficiency tests, but were also nearly disastrous as many YFC supporters and staff were drawn into the armed forces or war work. Some clubs announced they were closing until after the war and by the end of 1940 few people held much hope of reviving YFC.

But the picture changed dramatically when the Board of Education (BoE) was empowered to give financial help to youth organisations including YFC. A joint advisory committee was formed between the BoE, Ministry of Agriculture and NFYFC. Though membership had dropped to just 7,000, YFC now had government help, and had undergone a wide change, educationally and socially.

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