大象传媒

It's said to be one of the joys of Spring - the sight of new born lambs bouncing around in the fields.

For some breeds, the season starts earlier than others... and at Broomfield Hall at Morley the season is well advanced.

The Lleyn Sheep have already produced a good number of lambs - and the Wensleydales aren't too far behind!

New mums take a well-earned rest

Becky, one of the animal care staff Derby College, said it's a great job to have, but it's not always an easy ride: "You have to be dedicated - you have to be prepared to come in at 10 o'clock at night to give them their final feed and it's for a couple of months, every day.

"And you have to be ready to come in at the drop of a hat if you see any of the ewes lambing - you never know when they're going to be appear.

"Once they're born, that's when things are most risky and sometimes the ewes don't take to the lambs. Sometimes if there are triplets the mums don't feed all three so you have to put the orphan to another mum."

But Becky says they can also be like pets - particularly the ones that are bottle fed: "They follow you around everywhere - they like a lot of attention."

Broomfield Hall these days isn't just about sheep. The farm is also home to rare breeds of cattle and pigs and also has other animals to look after, including rabbits, hares, fish, tarantulas, lizards and iguanas, a variety of birds and snakes - and, one of the newest arrivals, a skunk!

Broomfield Hall

In recent years, Broomfield has had to diversify. Whilst many of the 400 students will go into farming, others will look to go into various types of animal care - eg working in a safari park or zoo.

Operations manager Jeremy Cater explained: "As food production has become a less important area (in so much as we are able to produce plenty of it) there has been more of a move into animals for leisure.

"People are interested in keeping more exotic pets."

And Broomfield has more than 400 acres of of land which is given over to nature and wildlife - conservation and countryside management is also a large part of what they do.