Kent College Report
by Ian Lockwood

It is quite amazing, even though we follow the farming calendar watching the seasons' change, and work through the academic terms, the year still goes past me within a blink of an eye.

The year has been action packed with events, activities and celebrations. The year began with snow, which lasted for the whole of the lambing season. This led to a difficult season for our pedigree Texel sheep, with ewes and lambs being squeezed into every corner of the farm sheds to get out of the cold and wet. The pupils got stuck in and helped the ewes to lamb down. There, small hands and experience was a great help and everyone pitched in to get through it.

Spring brought forth calving of our pedigree Sussex herd. They got on and calved on their own, producing some cracking bull calves which were shown at the Kent County show in July.

With all the animals out in the fields and the days getting longer, life was beginning to settle down on the farm.

With the advent of summer, our mind was turned to making hay and silage for the winter months. The mower was sharpened and the balers greased and put to work. With a bumper crop it was stacked in the fields. The straw brought in gave us confidence that we had winter covered, so that snow wouldn't catch us out this year.

Summer also brings the livestock show season - animals were washed, trained and pampered for the main event - the County Show. We took 17 children all with cows, sheep, poultry and rabbits, not to forget our pony, Pippin. All had a fantastic time and were rightly rewarded for their efforts.

With the turning of the maple leaves, autumn dawns and our attention turns to next years' crop. The new ram with its superior genetics is put in to the ewes and gives us a lambing date of March. The heifers and cows are put to the bull and will be due in April when they will be then weaned and brought inside for extra feeding.

The annual visit to the Ploughing Match was not missed and we took a busload of pupils along to see the various types of machinery, old and new, at work. We also had an entry to the Canterbury Horse Rescue Charity Show, so Pippin was washed and told to be on his best behaviour for the event. It was an early start but well worth it - Sarah Walker, Olivia Mitchison and Jasmin Khan did really well and won second reserve Champion for the whole show - a great result and a credit to the girls' hard work.

Winter comes around and thus Christmas carols on the farm and our trip to the Ashford Prime Stock Show. We take along the last of our Spring born lambs, a couple of pairs of pigs, and this years' two fat steers reared from bucket calves. Other entries included poster displays and stock judging animals. This all makes for a great afternoon out and is unique to the market. The children have the opportunity to see and speak to producers and to learn about the industry, and benefit from their experience.

The farm continues to develop and one area is the new classroom that we have built.
The pupils have been directly involved in converting one of the old sheds into a warm, dry and clean environment with chairs and tables, where they can learn new skills, have seminars from guest speakers and learn about animals and the countryside in more depth.

We hope this facility will open the farm to more people and enable others to benefit from this unique asset that we have at Kent College.

Ian Lockwood - Farm Manager

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