大象传媒

Agnes has been a shepherd for 12 years, four and a half in Bestwood.

The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust employee is originally from Holland and learnt about her current job on the internet while browsing for shepherding jobs.

She's in charge of the largest flock of Hebridean sheep in Europe.

"We've got between five and six hundred sheep and 25 cows."

Flying shepherd

Nicknamed the 'flying shepherd', her job entails moving sheep from field to field as they mow the lawns of Nottinghamshire's countryside.

"We're grazing in about 25 different reserves in the whole county. I drive around checking on the animals, moving them from one reserve to another."

Christmas connection

Nowadays she's closest the county gets to the three shepherds in the Bible's Christmas story although their sheep wouldn't have been penned in.

"They were more adventurous. They would stay with their sheep at night because they didn't have a place to go back to. They used to do it more in groups and they had dogs to protect them."

Sheep are clever

Agnes chose to work with sheep because she says they're relaxed and laid back animals.

"They are very clever. Very sociable as well. If a dog finds something nice to eat it'll scoff it before its mates arrive. If a sheep finds something to eat it'll bleat to let the rest of the group know."

Animal mowers

Hebridean sheep were first introduced to Bestwood Country Park, Nottinghamshire, in 2003 as part of a conservation scheme.

They graze the park keeping down the length of grass to allow more wild flowers to flourish.

The unusually coloured Hebridean sheep are classified as a "minority breed" as there are only a few thousand in the country.