Thousands flock to Oaklands for annual Lambing Weekend!

ST ALBANS — Oaklands College held its annual Lambing Weekend in St Albans last weekend, sponsored by local solicitors SA Law, welcoming over 10,000 visitors to the hugely successful free event, held across both Saturday 16 March and Sunday 17 March.

Every March, the college opens its doors to offer the local community the chance to meet some of the 300+ new-born lambs delivered through a busy lambing season from February to April.

As well as seeing the lambs and ewes in the lambing barns of the college’s on-site farm, visitors were able to learn about the different stages of lambing and chat to our Agriculture students, who were on-hand to answer and burning questions and to assist Farm Manager Del Knowles in the delivery of the expected 348 new arrivals.

With crowds flocking to the lambing barns, some visitors were lucky enough to witness 19 live-births across the Lambing Weekend and were expertly talked through the process by Del and his team.

Farm Manager Del Knowles said: “This year represented another hugely successful year for lambing at Oaklands College, with our Agriculture students gaining valuable experience of live-lambing and community event management.”

Oaklands College worked together with Angerland Park & Ride services in Hatfield to provide free transportation to and from the college from the University of Hertfordshire.

Alongside lambing, visitors were able to enjoy a wide range of food and drink stalls at the farmers’ market, from South African to Spanish cuisine, fresh apple juice, locally sourced honey and sweet treats such as churros and hot chocolate.

Younger guests were invited to take part in the college ‘Farm Trail’, by picking up activity sheets and stickers upon their arrival and were able to learn all about the on-site animals at the college farm, Equestrian Centre and Habitat Centre

College Principal Zoe Hancock said: “We were delighted to once again welcome the local community to Oaklands College to celebrate the arrival of our new-born lambs and to showcase the wonderful animal care and land based courses that are available at the college.”

Those who enjoyed Lambing Weekend will be able to look forward to the college’s next free community event, when we once again open our doors on 9 June for our Summer Fair.