PICTURES: Bower Young Farmers retain overall title at Caithness hosted Highland Rally
Bower Young Farmers retained their Highland Rally crown as overall winners of this year’s event, held on Saturday May 25.
This years’ victors took the title with 95 points, lifting the Hamilton Auction Mart Trophy for a third successive year.
It was a clean sweep for Caithness teams on home soil as second place was won by Forss with 75 points and third place went to Halkirk on 55.
The event was hosted by Caithness District and held at Caithness Livestock Centre with the permission of Aberdeen and Northern Marts, with NFU Mutual joining the event as main sponsors once again.
ABP Food Group and G G Mackay Buldoo also sponsored the rally.
Lynn Sinclair from the NFU kindly came along to present the prizes.
The day started with an impressive array of baking, handicrafts and team entries in the industrial section.
Bower won the Nan Howie silver salver for most points in baking with 49 points, followed by Halkirk with 40 points and third equal placings for Inver Ross and Forss, each on 35 points.
The Press & Journal Rose Bowl, awarded for club with the most points in the Industrial Section was also won by Bower with 54 points. Forss came second with 52.5 points and Halkirk third on 42.
The stockjudging took place in the morning with over 150 members from each of the six competing clubs taking part.
The first placed team, winning the Farming News Trophy was the team of Bethany Swanson, James Swansons and Will Oag, representing Forss A with 677 points.
In second place was Bower A, made up of Alistair McCarthy, Jak Murray and William Campbell with 633 points.
In close third with 632 points was Bower B, the team of John Forbes, Abbie Gunn and Lauren Oag.
The best individual, winning the Day Challenge Cup, was Forss member Bethany Swanson with 247 points.
Top stories
-
‘Once-in-a-generation’ chance will see £100m invested in Caithness town
-
West of Orkney wind farm gains offshore consents for 125-turbine development with Caithness connections
-
Caithness porridge enthusiast’s Divine Spurtles raise over £2400 for charity
-
Highland award for Unesco Flow Country planning efforts
In the junior section, first place went to Bethany Swanson Forss, second to Luke Taylor from Forss with 241 points and third, Alec Cormack from Bower with 232 points.
The practical competitions included:
• fault finding, with the machine kindly provided by R Henderson Mechanical and Welding Services, Watten.
• identification of feeds and weeds, kindly provided by Ranald Angus, Barrogill Mains
• welding, which was kindly sponsored and ran by M Mackay Engineering Services,
• construction of planter, kindly sponsored by Hamish Coghill and Rembrand,
• haltering making, with the rope kindly provided by Caithness Livestock Breeders
• a quiz
The overall winners for the practical section were Bower with 28 points, with Inver Ross in second place with 23 points and third, Halkirk with 22 points.
The sports took place in the afternoon, where members competed in boys and girls five-a-side football, mixed netball, tossing the sheaf, a tug of war and an obstacle race.
The overall winners for the sports section were Bower YFC with 52 points, with Forss in runners-up spot with 42.5 points. Inver Ross YFC placed third with 37 points.
Robbie Levack of Forss Young Farmers also scooped the Highland Area Young Farmer of the Year title, with Eilish Johnston of Nairn a close second followed by Ryan Luckhurst of Inver Ross YF coming third.
Robbie will now go forward to the national competition, with a brand-new ATV at stake.
Rally convenor John Swanson said: “It was great to see so many members coming along on the day, great to see everyone enjoying the event.”
