Grass Roots: Young Farmers

The Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster play a major part in the day-to-day social and professional lives of countless thousands of young people in rural areas across Northern Ireland. Students, apprentices, shop workers and, of course, farmers make up the membership, but you don't have to live in the countryside or be from a farming background to become a member. Indeed, to join Young Farmers you don't need to have cows to milk, tractors to drive or ever plan to take up a career in agriculture - you just need to have the one thing they all have in common, a love of the countryside. The clubs provide a focus for 12 to 30-year-olds in areas which can be quite isolated, and indeed the clubs have helped forge many relationships down the generations and are sometimes affectionately referred to as Northern Ireland's largest marriage bureau.