TED'S BLOG

Tractor Ted's Farm Show at Longleat

TRACTOR TED'S FARM SHOW AT LONGLEAT 2010

The weekend of July 3rd and 4th saw the second exclusive Tractor Ted Farm Show on the meadows of Longleat House near Warminster in Wiltshire. Following the success of the first show, Team Ted threw all their efforts into expanding on the best entertainments of last year. The result was a fantastic two days of interactive fun and learning about food, farming and caring for the countryside for pre-school children, their parents, grandparents and siblings of all ages. This year there were many more animals for children to watch, touch, feed and hold from lambs, sheep, horses, terriers, ferrets, chicks, broody hens and owls - to name but a few, the list was very long! Ted's Grand Ring hosted many more displays such as terrier racing and Tractor Ted's first ever Vintage Tractor Competition in addition to the favourites of last year; digger displays, duck herding, falconry and of course bale wrapping carried out by star of Ted's films and children's hero, Les the Tractor Driver - who was also making many Ted Fans happy with his autograph signing!

In fact, as the Grand Ring was so busy this year we introduced a second more intimate display area, Ted's Top Paddock. Here children could handle and race ferrets, watch as large, noisy chain saws were used to carve trees into furniture and toys and even get their hands onto a pair of shears to have a go at sheep-shearing! Two new marquees were created to increase the hands-on learning opportunities for children. Ted's Look & Learn marquee held a fantastic array of rare breed chickens which over the weekend reduced significantly in number as many of them were bought to take away as home-hens for egg laying - just what the Ted message is all about! The Rare Breeds Survival Trust brought along ponies and horses while the Beekeepers Association made a wonderful display about the lifecycle of honeybees and how to encourage them into your garden. Ted's Local Produce marquee was a sensory feast for the eyes, nose and mouth with a passionate group of local growers and producers offering such treats as jams, pickles, bread, smoothies, chocolate, apple juice, lavender and vegetables. Families feasted and foraged for their fare here in their droves.

Tractor and trailer rides took excited youngsters on a journey around the Longleat Estate. This year Team Ted had an extra treat lined up with meadows full of haymaking machinery in action - now which of Ted's films do we see the hay being made? Budding young drivers found themselves enjoying hours of endeavour riding replica Volvo diggers whilst loading and unloading buckets of balls from one side of the bale enclosure to the other.

7,000 visitors made it to the weekend - a tally of over twice that at last year's event. Team Ted were thrilled that so many enjoyed interacting with the much expanded weekend and have put together this gallery of pictures. If you have any of your own you would like to share, please send them into us and we'll add them to this page. Currently being edited is our Farm Show Report, filmed during the Saturday to include your feedback about the Show. We'll let you know when it is available to watch here on Ted's website or via YouTube in our monthly fan email. If you're not receiving these and would like to, please get in touch and we'll add you to our subscriber list - its a great way to hear about new products, Ted's outings and news of campaigns we are supporting - such as British Food Fortnight.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Farm Show this year - until next time - Toot Toot from Ted.