Families enjoying seeing lambs being born at Sparsholt College

Sparsholt College welcomed thousands of families to see the newborn lambs with 46 born over the course of the two-day event.

College shepherd John Garrett works with the ewes while the birthing takes place, assisted by agriculture students who are learning the skills ahead of the traditional lambing season when they work on commercial farms.

John said: ‘This is second nature to me and by the time the entire flock has lambed the students will have helped to deliver nearly 450 lambs.

‘However, many people have not witnessed such an occasion and we find they are intrigued.’

The college, near Winchester, was expecting 28 sets of triplets, 157 sets of twins and 49 single births.

The visitors enjoyed a number of other activities for a fun day out including pony rides, metal sculpting and seeing the range of tractors and farm machinery the college has.

College principal Tim Jackson added: ‘Once again our lambing weekend has proved a huge success and we’re always very proud to demonstrate to visitors how our expert team of staff train our students to be industry-ready.’