Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm welcomes new arrivals for half-term lamb cuddling event

A farm in Suffolk is 'back with a bang' after the pandemic and has welcomed 20 new lambs for its lamb cuddling event over the half-term.

Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm near Needham Market has been busy breeding animals and refurbishing its farm shop all to make a comeback after the lockdowns.

Families can get up close and personal to the farm's new lambs as part of its lamb cuddling event, and can groom ponies, pigs and goats.

There is also a chance to meet the rabbits and take a peek at the latest litter of Berkshire piglets.

Kate Ockelton, livestock manager, said: "Other businesses had their big re-opening from Covid last year and we delayed that purely because of the uncertainty of what was happening.

"We stopped all of our breeding and we didn't have the farm shop open last year due to the fact the rules kept chopping and changing.

"This year is our year to come back with a bang, so we're doing lots of breeding, we're refurbishing the farm shop, we've got new things on our menu - this is our comeback from Covid."

Kate added that the farm being open to the public again is also beneficial to children and their learning.

"We've had a lot of feedback that children love to be outside and they're enjoying that close contact with animals. Children are doing a lot of learning around farming at school now, so we take a lot schools for trips as well.

"Children are really getting a lot of hands on experience with animals and building that confidence," she added.

The farm hasn't fully completed its renovations for the shop, but there are set to be a host of events for later in the year.

Kate said: "We are having an outdoor kitchen built and we've got a pizza oven on the way.

"Our Baylham barbecue is quite famous and a lot of people will come over the Easter weekend for that. We hope to do barbecues more often and we'd like to do a pizza oven day.

"We're also selling our own produce in the farm shop as well."

This month's lamb cuddling will take place until February 27, with SEN sessions to be held as well.

There will also be more opportunities to meet lambs during the Easter break.

For more information, see here.