Snowdrop Season on the Farm

Spring on the farm: there's never a dull moment with thirsty lambs, braying baby donkey, hedge-laying, gate-hanging and wood-chopping.

There is always something to be done on a farm, as evidenced here on the Trant family farms at Welshpool (Maesmawr Hall and Cefn Du) and Llandrindod (Esgairdraenllwyn, Llaithddu). There's a fallen tree to chop up with a chainsaw, a fence post to be fashioned from a tree trunk, a wooden gate to hang, a hedge to lay with billhook and axe, and thirsty lambs to be bottle fed. Amongst the snowdrops, a young donkey exercises its lungs – viewers can provide the sound effect!

Ion Trant, brought up on Dovea Farm in Tipperary, Ireland, felt a gulf was emerging between town and country and welcomed school visits to the farms he ran with his wife, Janet Owen (Maesmawr Hall, Cefn Du, Esgairdraenllwyn). He also devised, filmed, edited and scripted the "Country Close-Up" series for children (BBC - 1956-62), often featuring his own three. As a result of this series, he was offered work as a freelance cameraman on the BBC's weekly farming programme and he also ventured further afield, travelling as cameraman with sports commentator Max Robertson to the West Indies and with George Cansdale, field naturalist and ex-Superintendent of London Zoo, to Palestine and Israel.