'Lambing event a good way to attract next generation of farmers'
BBCA lambing event is a great way to encouraging the next generation to consider farming, a lecturer at an agricultural college in Cheshire has said.
Reaseheath College and University, near Nantwich, is home to 180 sheep, and students there are currently taking shifts through the day and night to help as many of the ewes as possible give birth safely.
Many of the students come from farming families and have been helping with lambing since they were young, but lecturer David Shardlow said it was important that other people understood where food came from and got a glimpse of the profession.
Reaseheath College is hosting free lambing open days this weekend, and are selling tickets to a similar event next weekend.
"It helps encourage the next generation get involved and see it and think they could see themselves doing that," Shardlow said.
"Not as many people know now where the food comes from - the hard work, the effort, the blood and tears in a way, to produce the meat, vegetable or salad."
Student Will Williams said farming had always been in his "blood", with his father also a farmer and butcher.
He said helping the ewes to deliver their lambs was a rewarding experience and had recently had to intervene to ensure a safe birth.
"The ewes were struggling a bit, and we spotted that, so we went and give her a bit of a hand to get the legs facing forward," he said.
"It's always good when you have something like that happen and you feel like you are doing something, you are helping that ewe."
Fellow student Annie Thomas said she had been helping with lambing since she was four years old and it felt like it had been "bred" into her.
"It's definitely a lot of responsibility to take on, because some people are farming hundreds and hundreds of sheep, and especially when there not many people on hand," she said.
Read more Cheshire stories from the BBC and follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
