Coombes farm reopens for lambing season

Church Farm, Coombes, is fully open after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to close in 2020 and open partially last year.

Farmer Jenny Passmore, fourth-generation owner of the farm, said: “It has been so lovely seeing everyone come back to the farm. It’s like welcoming back old friends.”

The farm, which has been the Passmore family since 1901, has reintroduced its tractor rides and there are plenty of newborn lambs for visitors to see.

Jenny said: “We are always busy around lambing season, its our busiest time of year with all the lambs being born, so that side is going really well.

“We have had lots of lambs arriving and we have had our third set of quads, which was great.”

Jenny added seeing people enjoying all the facilities the farm has to offer again was ‘fantastic’.

The farm has also announced two new activities visitors can take part in – a forest walk and adult ‘lamb yoga’, run by Jenny’s daughter, Pam Peacock, who also oversees the late-night lambing at the farm.

Pam, 30, who is a physiotherapist by trade, said she wanted to start lamb yoga to relax people after Covid.

She added: “I thought it would be great to get people up and moving after the two years we’ve all had.

“I done some research and I found out that animals can reduce your stress levels by 20 per cent, and yoga is relaxing, too, so I thought I’d combine the two.

“I am really excited for our first session, I am really looking forward to it. We are already half sold out.”

The adult lamb yoga runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 7pm to 8pm until April 24, and is for over 18s only.

Pam’s late-night lambing sessions run from 8pm until 10pm, also adults-only, and people can see the lambs and feed them.

Late night lambing and lamb yoga can be booked via Pam’s website, latenightlambing.co.uk, and visits to the farm can be booked at coombes.co.uk.

Our reporter, India Wentworth, grew up on a farm in North Yorkshire where her family have 340 ewes and 540 lambs.

India said at her family farm they lamb from mid-February which lasts about a month, and currently, India said they have about six ewes left to lamb.

Ewes usually can lamb themselves, India said, but the farmer needs to step in if there are complications. For example, the ideal situation is for the lamb to come with both front feet and the nose first, but if there is a leg back, the lamb is backwards, or the head is back, then the farmer needs to help.

The tell-tale signs of when a ewe is lambing according to India is the restlessness - pacing around, sitting down and standing up again and licking her lips (in preparation for licking the lamb dry).

India added that a water bag will come out of the ewe just before the lamb, which is said to look like a water balloon. India said when the ewe pushes, she’ll look up to the sky but if she hasn’t got it out after an hour, the farmers will get involved.

The affect lambing has on the farmers is mostly the sleep deprivation, India said, making sure they are checking the ewes every couple of hours.

But on the bright side, India said seeing the lambs out in the field racing each other in a group is a lovely thing to see.

See more Sussex stories here:

VIDEO: Worthing’s Debenhams store: Take a walk through the old building with us as work begins to clear it out

New board game lounge that offers ‘real social interaction’ opens in Worthing