School children to mark 10 years of Farmwise on Tuesday

Almost 1,500 children from 30 schools across Devon will visit our Farmwise event at Westpoint on Tuesday and get the chance to learn more about how the food we eat is made and grown and where it comes from.

It’s the tenth anniversary of the event this year and since 2013 over 40,000 children have benefitted from taking part in Farmwise events.

We organise Farmwise Devon in partnership with Devon County Agricultural Association, Norse Group and Mole Valley Farmers and it takes place twice a year, once at Westpoint Arena in October and then at Devon County Show in May.

The aim is to engage young people in a number of sensory activities and experiences which offer an insight into farming in our region.  

Our Chief Executive Donna Manson, Council Leader John Hart and our Senior Leadership Team will all be there on the day and have volunteered to help run the event which will include local farmers, food producers and those from land based Industries who are vital to this event – and our agricultural economy – being a success.

The children will get first hand experience of how produce is grown, rolling up their sleeves to get stuck in to a range of activities. 

This year the Westpoint arena is split into 12 sectors, including vegetables, fruit, arable, forestry, environmental, and wildlife, as well as dairy, sheep, poultry, beef and pigs.

Activities will range from cooking, making flour, making rape oil, making flowerpots and planting seeds, and pressing apple juice through to dairy cows being milked and making butter from cows milk.

There are also numerous animals and livestock for children to interact with including cows, pigs, sheep, rabbits and goats – who constantly try and steal the show.

Other activities will include the delivering a lamb – which involves a sheep simulator and a cuddly toy covered in gloop, which the children can pull through the simulator, as if the sheep is giving birth – sausage making and apple picking.

There will also be a chance to make wildflower ‘seed bombs’ to take back to school and release them into the school grounds to encourage wildlife.