The small trailer I’ve borrowed from Pete is perfect for this job. I’ll return the favour tomorrow, helping to move his sheep preparatory to shearing. It’s finally feeling warm enough for that – in recent days my cattle have, at last, sought shady margins rather than lying out in the open.
My cargo is two eight-week-old gilts and my destination is Jamie’s Farm, a charity based just outside Bath. It’s a journey I make routinely, but usually in unfamiliarly clean clothes, as a member of the housekeeping team preparing the accommodation for school visits during the week and funds-generating guests at the weekend. Like most people who cross paths with this place, it’s impossible not to take it to your heart. The initiative of Jamie Feilden and his mother, Tish, its commitment is to regenerative opportunities for the young people it works with and in its working farm practices.
As I drive into the yard, I can see small groups going about the chores they’ve been allocated. Each day starts in this practical way before everyone joins together for breakfast around a large table in the barn. This epitomises two core tenets of the charity’s philosophy – farming and family.
The boys who come to help unload the piglets are reticent to begin with – unsure what to expect, but curious too. With cheerful encouragement from Dougie, the farm manager, they take boards to form a channel to the sty, and we open the trailer tailgate expectantly. But the piglets prove reticent too. One of the boys climbs in and gently ushers them out. Under Dougie’s direction, he pours some feed into their trough. We sit on our haunches in the sty, watching as they tentatively explore. We chat about their habits, markings, the noise they make as they eat. But it is the chance to be closely, quietly observing them that feels the more impactful experience.
Before leaving the sty, the gilts are so settled that one of the boys is able to stroke one. Given time, space, stillness and encouragement, they have been made to feel more confident. The analogy with the work of the charity is inescapable.
• Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary
