The Manx NFU has collaborated with local farmers to produce a book about the Countryside Code especially for children.

The idea originally came from Paula Creer: she had been hand rearing a Belted Galloway calf, which had been christened Jelly, and Teeswater/Swiss Valais Blacknose cross lamb and they were due to enter the children’s pet livestock classes at last year’s agricultural shows. One-year-old Billy Creer, who was leading the lamb at the shows had only one word in his vocabulary – ‘Oof’– so that became the lamb’s name.

It was all a bit of fun but it made Paula think of a way to tackle a more serious issue, using children’s affinity with animals.

She says: ‘I’m not alone: a lot of farmers struggle with people’s attitude towards the countryside and I thought that actually the only way you can educate people is through children. Children are the best way and animals with children are the best way.

‘The idea came to me in the shower, on the morning of the Royal Show. I had Jelly and Oof there and I saw Steph Jackson at the show and asked her what she thought about it, whether she felt like doing some pictures of the Countryside Code and how it affected the animals.’

Steph loved the idea but she and Paula decided they needed some help so they went to see Sarah Comish and Carolyn Lace at the Manx NFU offices.

Carolyn says: ‘We discussed which points of the Countryside Code we wanted to do and together we decided on 10 points and Steph went away with an idea of what she wanted to draw.

Steph is better known as a sculptor. She says: ‘I like working in clay but all the clay sculptures start with drawings and my first love was drawing. Jelly and Oof were just a joy to draw: they’ve got so much exprssion and character and they’re so quiet. I came up to take some photographs and I had my little ones with me and saw the way they interacted with each other and the little genuine moments.’

Carolyn explains that the original idea was to produce a set of posters: ‘But then we thought: “Actually, let’s put it into a little book”.

‘So I just sat down one night and wrote a little story, how I would tell it to my children.’

The result, ‘The Adventures of Jelly and Oof’ is a delightful tale, with endearing illustrations by Steph. It begins as the two young animals wake up and notice a farm gate has been left open so they wander off to explore a bit. On the way they encounter all sorts of things like a dog, a small boy playing on a tractor and a smouldering barbecue, which all help to illustrate various messages from the Countryside Code. And each page poses a question for the children to discuss how they think should be done, for example: ‘Do you think it is a good idea that the dog is off his lead?’

Manx NFU secretary, Sarah Comish, was the project coordinator, liaising with the printer and the designer, Chris Gregory.

Sarah says: ‘We also had some dialogue with Jo Collister at the Department of Education who was a fantastic help: she proof read it for us and she helped to guide us on which age group we wanted to target.’

The project has been supported by DEFA and Douglas Rotary Club.

Surprisingly, as Sarah explains, the Isle of Man doesn’t have its own Countryside Code. She says: ‘This was what started it off: if you want to find the Countryside Code you have to go to the UK website: we need to make an Isle of Man-specific code.’

Steph adds: ‘And anything to celebrate the Manx countryside: we’re so lucky to live here aren’t we and to take pride in it and everyone’s been out enjoying it more in the last couple of years.’

Sharp-eyed readers may recognise Jelly and Oof who were the start attraction on the Manx NFU stand at last year’s Food & Drink Festival, and Jelly has also been to visit Laxey Playgroup.’

‘That was the idea, because a story is one thing but seeing the animals as well makes it more realistic and it puts that extra emphasis on it being more important,’ says Paula.

Sarah adds: ‘The Manx NFU is also keen to encourage more farm visits, us going into schools and the schools coming out to visit farms.’

There is now some financial support available for farmers who wish to do this, through the new Agri Environment Scheme.

‘Visits to farms involve a lot of work: you need a lot of infrastructure there that’s suitable for the schools, because the schools have their own risk assessments as well, so any support that can be offered to help farmers to be able to do it is really good,’ says Sarah.

Steph agrees: ‘Because if children visit and have a contact with farms then you just hope that as they grow up they’ll choose to support Manx, when they see where food comes from, how it’s reared. The plan is for the book to become part of visits to local primary schools.

Sarah says: ‘We’re not selling it, we’re going to contact, and we have contacted, some of the primary schools, so any primary school interested in a visit should get in touch with us.

‘What we’d like to do is to bring Jelly and Oof along to the school and do a little talk about the Countryside Code alongside the teachers.

‘We’ve got posters for the schools and we’d like to give each of the children in a specific age group a copy of the book to take home.’

Paula says: ‘It gives you the opportunity to talk to people and explain things.’

l If you would like a visit to your school you can get in touch with Sarah Comish or Carolyn Lace at the Manx NFU offices on 662204.