'Tremendous boost' for rare and heritage breeds of sheep and pigs at Askham Bryan College

Herdwicks, Greyfaced Dartmoors, Devon & Cornwall Longwools, Soays, Borerays and Manx Loaghtans all disembarked from their livestock trailers to take their place alongside Large White pigs and a Gloucester Old Spot, joining the goats, alpacas, poultry, wildfowl and geese to create something Kelly believes will add far greater opportunity for students and the public to learn and perhaps take on breeds themselves in future.

“We want to deliver a new message about conservation work and rare and heritage breeds,” says Kelly, who has been with the college for fifteen years and is enjoying her role as head farm keeper.

“The heritage and conservation farm is part of the wildlife park which also includes an arboretum. We are wanting to make it bigger, better and improve all the time and our wildlife park manager Lauren Lane had a vision for a better farm section with rare and heritage breeds.

Kelly says she knew that being responsible for a small scale but very important farm was going to be something new for her skillset and that she would be best getting some help and she looked to farmer, show person and Rare Breeds Survival Trust member Lyn Arrowsmith of Raskelf Rare & Heritage Breeds Farm as her mentor.

“I’ve worked with animals throughout my fifteen years here, having studied for my degree at Bishop Burton College, but I had mainly worked with small animals previously, everything from our tropical house with reptiles, exotic animals like meerkats and possums, rodents, a few farm animals but mainly a collection of animals that students would use to then go into kennel and cattery work.

“When I knew that we were developing a new rare and heritage breeds farm and since my background has not been in farming, and with our intentions being to start breeding and conserving rare and heritage breeds I thought it was best to increase my CPD (continual personal development), something we are really encouraged to go out and find. That’s when I reached out to Lyn because I saw she was a rare breed farmer quite locally.

“All that has happened since has been through my involvement with Lyn who is amazing, knows everybody and is so helpful.

“I went to work alongside her for a few days and attended Springtime Live! and the Great Yorkshire Show, both in Harrogate. We are now loaning some animals from her because we were a little reluctant to just go off purchasing lots of animals straight away when we didn’t know whether they would suit the students or the land, because although we are open to the public when the students aren’t studying, at weekends or school holidays, we are also a college and students will work with these animals Monday to Friday doing animal husbandry. We were conscious we wanted to choose the right breeds that would suit everything and everyone. It was Lyn who suggested loaning from her and it is a really good arrangement.

“Lyn has loaned some of her primitive breeds, Boreray, Manx Loaghtan and Soay which are fabulous, they look great in the field and with those there is very little for us to do, but we also wanted a bit of variation and we’ve also some Lyn’s Devon & Cornwall Longwools. They’re completely different and should be easier for the students to round up, which we teach along with other animal husbandry.

“Lyn also put us in touch with others and Lucy Duffy, another RBST York area committee member and local farmer from Thistlebank Rare Breeds offered some of her Greyfaced Dartmoor lambs on loan.

“In addition to all of those, we have also made a purchase of seven Herdwicks, because they are a favourite of Lauren’s and they arrived just a few days before last Sunday’s open day. We’ve still only 19 sheep altogether but with the intention being of lambing the Herdwicks in future and possibly some of the other breeds, if we then take them on more fully, this has the potential to grow.

Kelly says the Large White pigs that also arrived just in time for the open day will have another important role to play, and that she understands the responsibility that comes with a rare breed.

“In our barn we’ve a Gloucestershire Old Spot sow we’ve had while, but we’ve now received two Large White weaners from pig breeder Tracy Bretherton as part of the British Pig Association’s Junior Pig Club initiative.

“Lyn put me on to Tracy because she runs conservation programmes and when I reached out to Tracy she told me about a programme she’s running within Junior Pig Club where she’s trying to get people to have Large Whites because there are less than 200 sows in England. By taking on these two weaners and being part of the programme I get technical support and all the advice I need about future breeding and I will be attending an AI course.

“Tracy is the BPA youth coordinator for primary, secondary school children and college students and they are looking to get students to show pigs. It fits exactly with how we want our students to be involved.

Kelly was delighted with last weekend’s open day and the response she has received to the college opening the newest heritage and rare breeds farm.

“We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew so we’ve started slowly and we’ll see where it takes us, but I’ve been immensely grateful for all the help and support I’ve received so far and what I’ve learned about this community is that everybody is so willing to help and so friendly and welcoming.