​Winter fair becomes a classroom for thousands of students

Year 10 pupils from Gwernyfed High School and Ysgol Calon Cymru attending the seminar at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair

More than 1,000 children and students from schools and agricultural colleges across Wales and the English border visited the Royal Welsh Winter Fair at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells.
 
The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (RWAS) promotes agricultural science, research and education, particularly in food, farming and the countryside, as one of its main charitable objectives.
 
The winter fair is unique to other RWAS events, as it takes place during term time. Each year, more schools and colleges are seeing the educational value of attending this two-day event to learn about food production, the supply chain and agricultural organisations.
 
Touching on many aspects of the curriculum, the event helps students to learn about agriculture in relation to business studies, cooking and nutrition, animal welfare, geography, mathematics and much more.
 
They are able to see first-hand the finest primary produce on display within the livestock, the end product in the butchery competition and the high quality produce in the food hall.
 
Cows on Tour held a seminar event at the Members Centre in collaboration with NFU Cymru (National Farmers Union). Together they welcomed more than 120 children from year 10 at Gwernyfed High School and Ysgol Calon Cymru (Builth Wells High School) to learn about Welsh farming and careers in agriculture.
 
A panel session was chaired by NFU Cymru deputy president Abi Reader, who was joined by speakers Stella Owen, NFU Cymru county adviser, sheep farmer Ernie Richards, Gareth Wall from McCartneys’ rural professional department, Kate Adams, senior policy adviser at the British Agriculture Bureau in Brussels and Robert Davies, RWAS assistant honorary director of sheep and lamb carcasses.
 
The panellists each talked about how they got into their respective roles and began their journey in the working world of agriculture and farming.
 
Following the panel session, Cows on Tour and NFU Cymru organised a scavenger hunt around the showground for the children to visit trade stands, such as Hybu Cig Cymru - Meat Promotions Wales, DPJ Foundation and Wales YFC.
 
Welsh Government Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths launched a new bilingual farm safety publicity campaign targeting primary-age school children in Wales.
 
A short video, together with two colourful workbooks aimed at children aged from four to 11 years old, have been produced by the Wales Farm Safety Partnership (WFSP) in collaboration with key rural stakeholder organisations in Wales. The aim is to encourage children to learn about the importance of farm safety and protect themselves from some of the most common farm hazards.
 
From farm to fork, the winter fair is an excellent way to share the positive farming story of how food is produced and to learn more about agriculture careers and opportunities.
 
Schools or colleges wishing to arrange a trip to the next winter fair in 2023 are asked to contact [email protected].