Eventful evening at farm visit for Glens Young Farmers’ Club

Their guest speaker for the evening was local Ballycastle vet, John McBride.

John began by giving a very informative talk on sheep and cattle husbandry, with particular emphasis on lambing and calving.

He encouraged his audience to ask questions, as well as challenging them to answer some questions he asked them.

A practical session followed, with John giving a demonstration of how he would carry out an initial examination on an animal.

Under his supervision, members had the opportunity to use a stethoscope on a lamb and learn about what they should be listening for.

Ciaran then explained the layout of the sheep house and how the lambing process would be managed.

There was some added excitement when one of the farm goats decided to give a live demonstration of the birthing process by delivering a set of twin kids.

This provided members with the opportunity to observe how new born animals need to be looked after – the importance of making sure they are able to feed and are kept warm.

A tour of the cattle houses followed and a very enjoyable evening ended with a lively question and answer session.

To conclude the evening, Ciaran thanked John on behalf of the club and commented that everyone had learnt a lot through John sharing his knowledge and his experience of being a vet in a busy rural practice.

He noted that, needless to say, it would not be possible for John to do this in a few weeks time, when the lambing season gets into full swing, so the club really appreciated him taking the time to visit them now.

The club is open to all, from the age of 12 years up to 30 years.

It is not necessary to come from a farming background.

Meetings are every two weeks, on a Tuesday 7.30pm-9.30pm, between September and May.

There is a varied programme of activities on offer.

To see what the club gets up to, check out Glens Young Farmers' Club Facebook page and if you have any queries send a message and a committee member will get back to you.