SEM Farm tours during the School Holidays for families from ROSHNI
As part of activities marking the this year’s Summer School holidays, Sheffield Environmental Movement (SEM) organised a number of farm tours for families from ROSHNI to Whirlow Hall Farm.
Funding was made possible by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) which has been supporting SEM take minoritised communities to the Yorkshire Agricultural Show every year.
The farm tours which were led by Ashley Malia, Contract Farm Manager, Whirlow Hall Farm involved sessions around links between the environment, farming and access to the countryside.
It also involves talks on farm diversification, regenerative grazing, herbal leys, species of livestock used, breeds, why and how they fit into Whirlow Hall Farm’s farming system. The groups were also shown around the various livestock breeds on the farm such as the Scottish Highland Cattle, other breeds, sheep, pigs among others.
Ashley also talked to the groups about what happens on the farm seasonally, life cycles, wildlife on the farm, where food comes from, foods in season, sustainable food, animal welfare and careers on the farm.
The older members of the groups who were all women from South East Asia spoke about their visit to Whirlow Hall Farm as taking them back to their home countries of birth, where they lived in the rural countryside and undertook subsistence farming as a source of livelihood.
Only one child out of all the children who attended the farm tours has ever been taken on a school visit to Whirlow Hall Farm, otherwise none have been on a farm”.