Lancing College Open Farm Sunday: Another Outstanding Success

  • 10 years ago
  • Uncategorized
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Lancing_College_Honey_Open_Farm_Sunday
Young visitors with Lancing College honey

 “Yet again, Open Farm Sunday was an enormously successful afternoon. About 600 people attended, a record number, and double the amount of visitors who came last year. We completely sold out of sausages from the barbecue, which were made from Lancing College pork.”

 

Open Farm Sunday is an opportunity for members of the public to discover Lancing College’s Farm. This year, Jon Hutcheon talked to visitors about how the farm is run, and explained his work in sustainability and conservation. Families and people of all ages came from Lancing, Worthing, Eastbourne and Chichester. Visitors were able to wander freely to see chickens, chicks in incubators, sheep, lambs, pigs, ducks, geese, rabbits, goats, alpacas and llamas. Children could handle some of the small animals and give them animal feed.

 

A local spinner demonstrated how to create balls of yarn from sheep’s fleece, using wool from Lancing College sheep. She was impressed by the number of young people who attended, with many watching, fascinated, as she demonstrated her craft.

 

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One of Lancing’s splendid herd of pigs

Jars of Lancing College honey were on sale for the first time, and proved very popular, with the beekeeper answering questions from the public.

 

South Downs National Park Authority Rangers were also on hand to talk about the national park and conservation issues.

 

Lancing College Farm is set on 70 acres of countryside in the South Downs National Park.

 

Lancing College Farm gives students a unique opportunity to take subjects such as Biology, Geography and Business Studies out of the classroom, and offers real ‘hands-on’ experience of a working farm. Students can broaden their interests within agriculture, ecology and veterinary science and learn about food sourcing, animal care and sustainability.

 

They are also taught about wild life and their habitats as well as the importance of recycling. Paths, animal bedding and farm buildings have been created from disused materials from the College, including shredded paper, pallets and wood scraps. Students help with shearing, hatching, hand-felling and cutting, charcoal burning, hedge-laying and coppicing. They learn about crop rotation, as peas, wheat and oats are grown on the wider estate.

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A guided tour of Lancing’s market garden

 

As well as supplementing students’ studies, the farm presents exciting opportunities beyond the school curriculum, as Jon Hutcheon adapts curricula offered by agricultural colleges. Jon has been involved in farming activities for most of his life. He has farmed sheep, pigs and poultry and also has wide experience of arable and cattle management. From the age of 15, Jon has worked as a game keeper, which has included partridge, pheasant and duck management. He is also experienced in coppice and woodland management and regeneration, hedge planting and laying, habitat work and charcoal burning. Jon has written four books on rural pursuits including bushcraft and countrycrafts.

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