After a hectic week on calving it seemed very appropriate that it was Mother’s Day or as my Nanna would have insisted ‘Mothering Sunday’.

So far we have had 16 calves born in this fabulously sunny spring weather. The sunshine also meant that we were able to turn a group of cows and calves out in the field which was just such a joy to see them romping around the field with their tails up, excitable calves gambling along in hot pursuit!

This week we hosted our first of hopefully many educational visits to the farm. A group of A Level biology students spent the afternoon with us where they looked at the cows and calves. Used their classroom genetic knowledge to work out the predicted coat colours of calves from our roan bull when bred with a white cow and a red cow.

I gave a carcass demonstration where I talked through the anatomy of a side of beef. Looking at a fore and hind quarter, the muscle and bone placement. Then we looked at various cuts of steaks and joints and where exactly they were cut from. The students were so engaged with it and it felt like a pivotal moment of linking in their minds just where their food comes from.

Next up we headed out to the fields where we have been conducting trials with ‘Farm Net Zero’ on herbal ley establishment methods. The students used quadrats to measure the number of chicory plants in each trial plot.

Through the whole visit the students asked brilliant questions and were revelling in putting their classroom knowledge into practice in the field.

Farm visits in my opinion should be a standard part of the national curriculum as children must be empowered with the knowledge of the origins of their food and the importance of farming for our nations health and culture. Sadly with school budgets at an all time low and the removal of environmental payments to farmers (educational visits receive funding through these schemes) visits like these will become more tricky.