LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION...

Keep watch on your TV screens this autumn as we’ve had film-crews and celebrities mingling with the pigs, goats and chickens for a BBC TV programme. Hosted by celebrity food fanatic Stefan Gates, the programme called Gastronuts sees intrepid kids go wild on culinary adventures as they discover the truth about what we eat and where it comes from. The 15-strong Objective Productions team and four city kids descended on the farm for a two-day shoot. The programme is aimed at 6-12 year olds and its goal is to help raise awareness of food and nutrition among the younger generation.  The host, Stefan Gates has previously written three foodie books: 101 Dishes to Eat Before You Die, Gastronaut – about the darker side of food from flatulence to cannibalism; and In the Danger Zone linked to the BBC Four programme looking at what’s on the menus in extreme locations around the world.

Sheep shearing

Make a date to pop down to the farm on June 6 or 7 and you can see some master sheep shearers in action. There are over 300 sheep on the farm and about this time of year it is time to give them all a major hair cut. Keeping them still and removing all their wool in a quick and painless way is quite a skill. The sheep shearers know their stuff and watching them in action will take your breath away! See you there.

Squeak piggy, squeak squeak

There are new additions at Holmbush Farm World this week with the arrival of our latest litter of piglets. Pictured here with Lesley Armstrong taking a break from working in our tea room, the piglets certainly love to squeak and squeal! The proud parents are Winston and Clementine - our famous rare woolly pigs - and their little piglets have certainly arrived full of energy and enthusiasm.  We have also adopted an additional woolly pig to be part of the Holmbush family and she's attracting plenty of attention too as, unusually, she is white!  

Come a visit soon and check them out. 

The donkeys are named!

Congratulations to Jordan Swallow, aged 9, and Belle Mills, aged 6, who have won themselves a free visit to the farm by entering our competition to name our new miniature donkeys. Jordan, from Cranleigh in Surrey chose the name of Jake for the darker donkey and Belle suggested Charlie for the light-coloured donkey. The miniature donkeys were new arrivals to the farm for this season and are a great hit. Belle's mum said: "Belle is horse and donkeys mad and she absolutely loved the miniature donkeys. All the family love the farm - it's so pretty and makes such a lovely, easy day out. We are delighted that we will be able to come again soon to see the donkeys now they have their new names!"

Swine fever information

A number of regular visitors to the farm have called us worrying about the risks of Swine flu. Our poor woolly pigs - Winston and Clementine (due to farrow any day now!) have been most offended! Swine flu contagion is not in fact now in anyway related to pigs.

Speaking to the Newspaper Society at the Palace of Westminster, Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn said: “The UK and some other members of the European Union undertake routine surveillance to help detect the presence of animal diseases not normally present in the EU and to identify any change in the prevalence of diseases that do occur. Results of our surveillance suggest that this variant of H1N1 does not appear to be present in pigs in the UK or anywhere else in the EU. However we are taking this developing situation very seriously and will maintain our surveillance effort, keeping the public and industry informed of any developments."

For more information on the disease currently hitting the headline you can visit the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website www.defra.gov.uk

Do come along and visit the new piglets arriving soon!

Action-packed April

April is an action-packed month down on the farm with lambing underway and a succession of special events scheduled to keep our visitors busy. Watching the new lambs take their first steps and helping out with the bottle feeding is always a favourite activity at this time of year but there is also lots going on beyond the lambing pens to entertain the kids throughout the Easter holidays. Next up is Charlie the clown on April 7 who will be falling and fooling around all day, followed by Bosco's circus workshops on April 9. There will be Easter craft activities on Friday April 10 and 17 and Huxley's birds of prey demonstrations on April 15. Poz's magic and Punch and Judy shows take to the floor on April 16 and 17. So do keep an eye on our events calendar and do come and visit us soon and join in all the fun.