Children discover the facts of country life

Some may not have set foot on a field before. Chris Berry reports on how the generation who could become the Great Yorkshire Show's fans of the future got a taster this week.

Children from the inner city, of all sorts of different backgrounds, races and colours came to the Great Yorkshire Showground this week thirsty for knowledge about what really happens in the wide open spaces.

Some of their questions that came Mike Keeble's way required deft handling. Explaining to youngsters how animals are slaughtered can be tricky enough at the best of times. But here he also had to get across the humane angle and also be aware of the religious context.

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"We have Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and very strict Jews all coming here," says Mike. "One is very conscious of their diets, but kids want to know. I have to say – and this is a tribute to all of the teachers of children who come along from ethnic origins – that they don't prevent us from talking about things right across the board."

Mike is one of the best known countryside speakers and agricultural show commentators in the country. His pungent performances in the cattle ring are one of the highlights of the Great Yorkshire – and he was not holding back with the children who had come to one of the Countryside Days either.

This event began in 2001 when the ravages of foot and mouth disease led to the cancelling of the Great Yorkshire Show. The organiser is the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's education committee. Charlotte Bromet, whose family farms near Tadcaster, is its chairman.

"We had 600 children in the first year, now it's held over two days and attracts 6,000," she says.

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"We have people coming who have never walked on grass before, who have never rolled down a grassy bank. They love that. They have never seen or stroked an animal. We are very grateful to everyone who comes along with their livestock or runs a stand or workshop because they all give their time freely."

Two of them were James Cooper, who farms at Dacre, near Harrogate and fellow cattle handling showman Mark Phillips. Both will both be back here for the GYS. James says this event is a useful run out for some of his stock and he was particularly pleased with his calf.

"It's been a real star. He came out off the farm for the first time on Tuesday and he seems to love being patted and petted. The calf is my daughter's and this was an opportunity to halter train it and show it. He's been great. We have to bring something here which is pretty well bombproof because you don't want any disasters when there are so many children about."

Mark says one of the most commonly asked questions is what's the difference between a bull and a cow.

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"I just say what's the difference between a boy and a girl? Then they take a look again."

James says it's surprising in today's technological world how little the children know about farming.

"We need some of these children to come into agriculture because they will be the farmers of tomorrow.

"Jobs on farms need well educated people these days. We have a lot of computerised kit and there is a lot of record keeping that needs to be done.

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"What I am still surprised about though is how nave many are given the fact that they can find so much out on the internet.

"I had another little girl come up to me as the bull was laid out with his testicles on display. She came up to me and said 'What are those?' I told her. Minutes later she came back with some of her girl friends and they were miming the word in the same way that Les Dawson used to with Roy Barraclough, as though it was too rude to say out loud."

"I suppose you could say we do a lot of sex education down here," adds James Cooper. "These Countryside Days give the children the chance to see and be able to touch the animals, and find out more about the countryside and what goes on in it. We don't hide anything either. We tell it exactly as it is.

"We get a lot of questions about reproduction and find that the girls are usually about two or three years more mature than the boys. They see anything to do with reproduction as pornographic, whereas the girls are much more interested in pregnancy and gestation length. We explain how old each animal is, how much they will grow each day and what they are going to be used for, because ours are not just show animals.

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"One little girl came along with all her make-up on and long, painted fingernails, looking like she was 15 or 16.

"She had heard our commentator Mike (Keeble) explaining that when the bull was fully grown he would probably serve about 50 cows in the spring and get them all into calf, and he would serve another 30 to 40 cows in the autumn. She came across to me and asked whether what that man was saying was right. I said 'yes'. She said 'Will he look after them?' I said 'Don't be silly'. She said 'That sounds just like my dad!'"

Mike Keeble added: "Most of them still giggle when the cattle do any form of relieving themselves but I always shout, 'Silence! This is fertiliser' – and explain to them what farming is all about. If you talk real to them they go away knowing that we eat what we produce.

"I tell them that our countryside is solar powered, that it is sustainable and very valuable."

CW 19/6/10