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Young Member’s 17th World Simmental Congress

Report by Young Members Chairman Stephanie Birch

Firstly I would like to thank the British Simmental Society for allowing me to be involved with organisation of the young members aspect of the Congress, I enjoyed every minute of it and it will be something I will remember for life. It was only the second time that the young members where able to get involved with the World Congress and I have been fortunate to be involved on both occasions.

The young delegates joined the congress at different stages, we hade delegates from Australia, Canada, America, and Austria. We started the tour in Northern Ireland where we had an excellent three days seeing some exceptional cattle and wonderful scenery we also had the opportunity to cross the Carrickarede rope bridge and climb the Giant’s Causeway, these along with the boat journey to Scotland are experiences I will never forget and I am sure will be talked about for along time!!

Next stop was Scotland we all attended the Opening Ceremony a fantastic night was had by all, with excellent entertainment.

The following morning we all attended the Royal Highland Show, this for a lot of young members was one of the most enjoyable days as not only did they get to see an outstanding show of Simmentals but also a large number of other breeds and species.

Kyle & Hannah tie the knot ‘Simmental’ style at Gretna Green!

For the rest of the time in Scotland we saw many wonderful cattle, enjoyed excellent hospitality and saw wonderful scenery. At our stop at Gretna Green we managed to get two of the young members Kyle and Hannah married with the rest of the group as guests.

Our main day in England was the stock judging event which we held at Sacombe where both our own young members and the international delegates took part. I was extremely impressed with the way the internationals gave their reasons which were outstanding and I think our young members learnt a lot from listening to them. The Austrians even gave there reasons in English, which I felt was a great credit to them as it would not be something I could do if I was in their country.

The boys really enjoyed their trip on the Norfolk Broads and the National Stud but the highlight for the girls was the close up view we all had of Prince Harry!

All the young delegates attended the Open Meeting where we all learnt a lot form the speakers and it was great to hear the positive attitude that the World Federation has towards the young members.

The Closing Ceremony was our last night together as a group so we decided to make the most of it and we all had a wonderful evening. It couldn’t have been a better setting than we experienced at Boddington Manor.

On behalf of all the young delegates I would like to thank all of our hosts for making us part of this World Congress and leaving us with memories we will treasure. I feel that many life time friendships have been made from the short time we all spent together on this trip its great to think that we are all still in contact and looking forward to Australia in 2010.