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Meopham
Open Kent Show Report Well where do I start? This year's show seemed bigger and better to me than ever before with lots of attractions and main lines packed full of animals! On the Young Farmers side of things, the three days were packed full of competitions and events. I think it was true to say that there were more cows than ever. This was helped by one of the most recent clubs attending, Maidstone, which was great to see. The time seemed to fly by and everything was well organised which was a result of months of planning by the Show Committee and especially Philippa and Catharine. Kent Show started for Meopham at the beginning of the week as some of our members were on the committee and helped on Tuesday and Wednesday with the erection of the Marquee and making sure everything was ready for the influx of lorries filled with livestock. On Wednesday night several of us who were borrowing animals from a neighbouring farmer washed our cows for the last time at the farm and picked out 4 sheep to take to the show out of about 150. As you can imagine this was quite good fun, but we made some quick decisions, and these decisions paid off as we didn't do too bad in Butchers Pairs and Turnout Classes. Thursday morning arrived; some members were at the show helping with livestock coming off the lorries while others were at farms loading livestock. All livestock was at the show by about 6pm, the marquee had that usual buzzing feel as we were all glad we had arrived and were looking forward to the next three days. Meopham fed, watered and bedded down all their animals and returned to the Campsite. Now one of our members which will remain anonymous but many of you will know him had his 18th Birthday. The club had a barbeque for him to celebrate and I recall he had many presents of the alcohol variety. Darren had many ideas of what he was going to do to the poor young farmer but I don't he got his way, but it would have been funny seeing someone drinking Guinness out of a Wellington. Friday morning arrived a lot quicker than many of us would have hoped which was probably due to the large quantities of alcohol consumed the night before. Well at least only one of our members was showing that morning; the member who had is 18th birthday the day before. Oh well it was funny for us watching him getting his animal prepared but several members helped him. The day went on with other classes, perhaps the most memorable to me being Beef Pairs, watching David Brown from Meopham Open and Emma Gladwell from Meopham School walking round the ring with two Aberdeen Angus which walked perfect and to think two months ago, when helping to unload them up at the school my life flashed before me being dragged round the pen. Anyway it is all good fun!
Saturday, a key day for Meopham, with the Beef Confirmation Class. Many of our members were up early again washing and preparing the animals ready for the show. The morning went fast with many animals going into the ring and some coming out with rosettes and some not but it is the taking part that counts. The afternoon arrived and a class which my brother had been looking forward to was 'Ex Members'. Well you can have your own opinion, but a dairy definitely doesn't suit him.
Sunday, the last day of the show but the most important as it was Beef Turnout. I think I was up at 5am but others must have been up before that looking at the number of tired faces there were in the YFC marquee. Sheep were being blown to bits by hairdryers and Class 1 beef being frantically washed and brushed for the 8.00am kick off. Throughout the show I feel there was a great team effort but especially today. All members were helping each other, making sure animals don't sit down, changing halters etc. Once the last beef turnout animal was in the ring, we all concentrated on the Sheep. The sheep did well and next year we will hopefully have them to work on advance a bit longer. There was a couple of hours free before the award ceremony so we took it in turns to man our area while others went off for a look around the show. The award ceremony started promptly at 2pm with all clubs in attendance. Meopham was happy with their results throughout the show and look forward to Kent Show 2006!
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