Our Chairman of the World Angus Forum recently received two lovely letters from some of our younger delegates about their time at the 2017 Forum. The first letter was written by Jessica Johnstone from New Zealand.

“Hi, I am Jessica Johnstone and I’m 14 years old. My family and I were part of the New Zealand delegates who attended the Aberdeen Angus World forum 2017.

I was excited about attending the WAF because I had heard my dad speak about how he had exported semen from one of our bulls, Ranui Impact to Netherton Angus. I really enjoyed seeing and meeting the progeny that was from Ranui Impact. Also during my trip, I have learnt more about judging cattle because we got to go to many different farms and cattle shows.

I really enjoyed going to the different castles and historical sites that I got to visit in the UK and Ireland, especially the ones that I have studied in class. It has really brought them to life and I now have a greater understanding of them.

I was also really keen to watch the youth teams and enjoyed the opportunities we got to watch them compete. I was really excited at the Netherton Angus dinner when we got to find out who won the competition and this has inspired me to put my name forward to be more active as a youth member in New Zealand.

Over the years, I have heard my granddad and dad speak of Willie McLaren’s Angus song and it was fantastic to actually hear him sing it and to be given a copy of the song on a tea towel!

I would like to say a huge thank you to Alex Sanger and the WAF committee who warmly welcomed me on the tour and also a huge thanks to everyone who openly accepted me and my brother. I feel that a lot of doors have now opened for me. But the door, that I like the most that has opened for me, was meeting all the people on the tour.

Finally to everyone who was on the tour, I would like to say a huge THANK YOU, to you all, for all the nice comments you said to my parents about Lindsay and I. 

So once again, THANK YOU to everyone for a life time of memories.

Kind regards,

Jessica Johnstone.” 

Everyone involved with the organisation of the 2017 World Angus Forum would like to thank Jessica for her kind words and we hope to see her competing in the youth competition in Australia, 2021. We will be sharing the second letter with you next week from Jessica’s brother, the ‘Kiwi Kid.’