The first Young Farmers’ Club opened in 1921 in Hemyock, Devon, where the United Dairies milk factory set children of the area’s milk producers the task of calf rearing, with competitions and prizes for those achieving the highest standards. Over the next decade more clubs opened to provide agricultural education, with the focus on the keeping of growing and living things including calves, pigs, poultry, bees and gardens. After the death of one of YFC’s original founders and greatest inspirations, Lord Northcliffe, in 1922 the Ministry of Agriculture took on development of the organisation. But within six years it was proving difficult for it to offer the type of help needed by the members to organise the 50 clubs or offer guidance on the rural social role Young Farmers’ Clubs were assuming. In 1929 the National Council for Social Services (NCSS) stepped in with the goal of developing YFC as a voluntary, self-governing and self-generating organisation.
