One member's report of the South of England Agricultural Society's Show

EUROLINK CLUB GATHERING AT THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND SHOW.

Nearly twenty Eurolink Club members gathered in the International Pavilion around lunchtime on Friday and enjoyed a glass of wine together. Niek Ruyter, the Club President, had travelled from the Netherlands to be at the Show, and Matthew Berryman, the Chairman of the International Farmlink Committee, was also present. The Club Chairman, Ginny Duncanson, welcomed everyone, and took the opportunity to promote the possible Reunion in Italy in 2012 and to mention the blog, which the Club has just set up. Several other Club members visited the International Pavilion during the three days of the Show - it is an ideal location to meet and catch up with friends.

Julia Reynolds

Cattle Judging

50 years ago western European farmers all had similar ideas on the conformation of cows and bulls. My field is dairy cows. We like cows not too tall, height 125-135cm with good udders and legs, also meat on their bones i.e. small fat cows. The English farmers had their British Friesians and the Dutch their Friesian Holland, both black and white.

My first show, in 1958 was in France, I was sent by the Dutch Cattle Exportation Company to Bordeaux, South West France. I had good knowledge of our local cattle in The Netherlands. I noticed a great difference between the Dutch and French cattle. Even within The Netherlands there was great variation between the East and the West. In 1964 we sent a cow to our National Show, she was the tallest cow in her class, but she took last place, in spite of the fact that she produced double the yield of the others 8000l against 4000l. I was encouraged by one of the Dutch exporters who indicated that in spite of coming last in the class, my cow was of huge value.

I also attended shows in Germany where they were importing semen from the the United States. A British judge was given a difficult time judging the new German cows and had to re-educate his judges "eye" to accommodate the changing breed. When at the South of England show over the years, I have noticed a change in the breed requirements in the UK with the use of Canadian semen.

We now need a more practical dairy animal in these difficult economic times, good legs, udder and conformation as before. We are returning to a smaller animal which produces milk of a higher protein and less fat with good longevity (the first 2 years of the life of a cow being the most expensive).

A quote from a Dutch farmer "the fashion and feeling for cows is like the fashion for ladies: it is always changing". Judging is like an examination, you are aware of the people around the ring which can make you nervous and of course has his own taste.

Formerly there were always 2 judges, one a young person who had the opportunity to learn. Now there is a single judge which is easier as there is no discussion.

As a judge you say to yourself "the professional in you is on your side"

Niek Ruyter

First published in the Eurolink Newsletter 2009

Day One and Day Two of the SEAS

Day One of the South of England Agricultural Society show at Ardingly. It was good to hear that Mr. Alex Leggat was presented to the Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward. A full report to come.

Day Two of the South of England Agricultural Society show at Ardingly was slightly hampered by the odd shower of rain but current members of the Eurolink club met within the International Tent for a drink at midday to celebrate another year. Mr. Alex Leggat and Mr. Peter Elliott were presented to the President of the Society, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon. A full report to come.

Niek Ruyter

On the eve of the three day South of England Agricultural Society Show at Ardingly we profile one of the Eurlolink members,  Niek Ruyter (President of Eurolink Agricolae Club) – Niek Ruyter’s Award

We have great pleasure in informing you all that our President, Niek Ruyter, has received an award from the Queen of the Netherlands.

He was nominated as a Member of Orange-Nassau for his services to the Dutch dairy industry, and to local community life.

This consisted of Niek being a member of the local cattle breeding organisation and then later its Chairman. He was Chairman of the Dairy Farmer’s Union of North Holland (NFU) as well as chairman of a 300 member milk cooperative with 1400 members, and was a delegate member of the top board representing 9,000 members. The board consisted of 100 delegates.

As if this was not enough, Niek is a member of the Research and Development for dairy farmers, which considers the planning of landscape, greenhouses, green land, fruit farmers and “places for living”.

Niek is also a member of an organisation, which controls milk for all of the Netherlands, a member and chairman of a Government organisation giving advice and information to dairy farmers.

However, Niek has just not been involved at National Level. He is Chairman of all Sports in his municipality, a Commissioner for Sports, Chairman of a show for young people and young cattle, and also – for fun as he says – Chairman of a local organisation to celebrate Queen’s Day, with games by day and a party in the evening.

As you can now all fully understand, with such a busy person, I was delighted when he accepted to be our Club President five years ago, and even more delighted that he has accepted to carry out a second term.

It is fitting that being such an eminent agriculturalist in his own country, that Niek should be the first person from mainland Europe to hold an official role in the South of England Agricultural Society.

Many Congratulations on being given your Royal Award Niek. We only heard about this three days before the Summer Show. We hastily arranged a champagne reception in the International Pavilion on the Showground at which the Deputy President of the Society, Christopher Hall, the Chairman of the Society David Allam, and the Vice Chairman of the Society Meg Stroude – incidentally a former Agricolae – all attended. The Chairman, David Allam gave a congratulatory speech to Niek and we all enjoyed the champagne.

Well done Niek – we are delighted for you and your family that you have received this award.

Article originally published in the Eurolink Newsletter in 2005 

Eurolink has become The International Farmlink Committee

The Eurolink Initiative has been running for nearly 30 years and over that time, hundreds of farmers from England and mainland Europe have visited each other to get an insight into the issues faced in their daily working lives. Eurolink has been fantastically successful and many participants keep in touch with the farming families that they have played host to and in turn visited. The scheme has been so successful that the Eurolink Club continues to meet somewhere in Europe every year to keep the friendships and spirit alive.

When Eurolink began the structure of the farming industry was different to how it is now. Twenty-five years ago the South East was dominated by family farms, many of them dairy. Typically, they were worked by the farm owners with help from family and employees and this allowed them to get away every now and again. This is how so many farmers from the South East have been able to take advantage of the Eurolink opportunity. But times have moved on. Whilst still a family business farming has become more complicated placing greater demands on the people involved. This gradual change has resulted in fewer farmers being able to spare the time to host foreign farmers and then visit them in their own countries.

However the fundamental reason Eurolink started has not changed – we have much to learn from farmers in other countries. On this premise Eurolink has been reborn as the International Farmlink Committee (IFC). The IFC’s role is to help individuals or groups of agriculturalists from the South East of England to visit a country of their choice with aim of studying a specific topic or enterprise. For example, if a group of farmers wish to visit wine producers in France because they plan to establish vineyards in the South East then the IFC can provide financial assistance with travel expenses. The first trip to benefit from the new scheme leaves this spring when 10 farmers will travel to Germany to study “on farm” renewable energy enterprises such as anaerobic digesters and gasifiers. In this instance each person will receive £250 from the South of England Agricultural Society and when they return a representative of the group will be required to present a brief summary of their trip and explain how the knowledge they have gained can be used to benefit their own business and the South East farming industry alike.

The new scheme is not restricted to farmers and is available to agriculturalists who can demonstrate that they would derive significant benefit from a study trip. The IFC Committee is keen to receive applications for funding and anyone interested should in the first instance, contact the IFC Chairman, Matthew Berryman to discuss their proposal.

Finally, whilst we look forward to discussing the opportunities that this new scheme will provide the original exchange program still exists and if anyone particularly wishes to visit a farming family and is happy to reciprocate then, we shall be pleased to hear from you.

Matthew Berryman – first published in Spring 2009 Eurolink Club Newsletter Issue No. 25

Eurolink Agricolae Club

The Eurolink Initiative was formed in 1980.

The Eurolink Club was established in 1995 in response to popular demand from previous participants in the Eurolink Exchange Scheme.

At that time farmers could only participate in the scheme once. Having gained so much from their experience, and even having enjoyed it, the farmers wanted to be involved again in meeting more people from the agricultural world and seeing different farming projects.

The Eurolink Club provides an annual gathering (reunion) for its members in a different country each year. This provides an occasion to see different rural and agricultural businesses, to renew friendships and enjoy some cultural activity.

The Club provides two newsletters a year in a minimum of two languages and organises key events for members in each country.

During 15 years, we have provided gatherings and opportunities to learn for 500 people.

Eurolink is part of the South of England Agricultural Society family.

Come and visit the South of England Agricultural Society show on the the 9th to the 11th of June 2011, more details can be found here.