A LOCAL young farmer is celebrating after winning the first ever YFC national auctioneering competition.

Daniel Lynn (21) from Cambo Young Farmers’ Club brought home the trophy after competing against seven other YFC members in the finals of the competition held in Staffordshire earlier this month. He had already taken the top spot at the county-wide competition at this year’s Northern Area Field Day.

Originally from a farming background, Daniel joined the Army as a teenager, but the call back to agriculture proved too hard to resist. Currently, he is a semi-professional auctioneer at Darlington Farmers’ Auction Market, where he can sell up to 2,000 sheep in a week, and he is also studying for his livestock auctioneering and management degree at Harper Adams. He owns 50 breeding sheep of his own.

“Leaving the army at 18, I knew that I wanted to get back into agriculture, but I never expected I’d become a livestock auctioneer,” said Daniel. “There are so many aspects about the job which I enjoy. You are always meeting new farmers, or selling different animals. It can be challenging at times, but once you’re up in the box, it’s an adrenaline rush. Often I don’t want to come back out!”

Also representing Northumberland’s young farmers in a national competition this month were Katie Willey from Whitley Chapel club, who competed in the dairy stockjudging national final at the Great Yorkshire Show; Jamie Taylor from Tritlington YFC, who competed in the men’s national clay pigeon shooting finals and Amy Little from Shaftoe YFC who represented Northumberland for the ladies.