As part of our regular series of profiles on the region's Young Farmers' Club (YFC) members, 19-year-old ISAAC KING explains how he hopes to gain international experience and put it to use at his home farm.

I have grown up on the family farm in Necton and from an early age I was encouraged to be involved in all things agricultural.

For as long as I can remember, I have worked on the farm after school and at weekends under the supervision of my older brother and dad, teaching me things along the way. We farm a mixed arable farm and do some contract work for other farms in the area. When I finished school I went to Easton College to study agriculture and then officially went on the payroll at home when I had completed my extended diploma.

My day starts usually at 7am with a meeting in the yard when we decide the plans for the day. Dad is supposed to be in charge but we all have a say in what and when.

At this time of year we are fertiliser spreading and getting the spraying done. I have also been pulling down some maize land for some of our contract farmers. I love the variety that farming brings from day to day. It's a slightly quieter time of year at the moment and, with the good weather, I have been top-dressing wheat and we are fairly up-to-date with no major repairs or problems.

In five years or so, I would like to have been travelling and working abroad, maybe somewhere in Australia. That should open my eyes to a very different style of farming and make me a bit more independent – then hopefully I'll have a bit more of a say in how things are run. Dad reckons he's going to live until he's 200, so he has no plans to retire. Many years from now, he will still be driving around the farm checking up on things.

I am looking forward to going to the Agritechnica show in Germany this November. We have been before and loved it. I thought it was really good seeing some incredible machinery and some interesting new innovations.

YFC has given me the opportunity to meet new people and do things that I wouldn't usually do. We have had tours around various businesses like Peele's Norfolk Black Turkeys and Jack Richards Haulage. We have looked around Archant Print too and we generally get to see things you usually wouldn't see. Like all Young Farmers I enjoy the social side. I'm on the Dereham club committee as the competitions secretary, which means I have to make sure we have entrants for the huge variety of competitions that are on offer to Young Farmers and I have to make sure that they know what they are doing; where they have to be and at what time.

As it is with most things – the more you do the more you get out of it, and this is certainly true of Young Farmers.

PROFILE:

Name: Isaac King

Age: 19

Occupation: Farmer

YFC Club: Dereham

How long have you been a YFC member?: 2 years

Dereham YFC meets at Darby's Freehouse in Swanton Morley on Tuesday evenings. For more details contact the county office on 01603 731307.