With Spring in the air, Cows on Tour has launched a ‘Wooden Cow - Grow your Own’ competition for schools to embrace the importance of food and plant production.

Cows On Tour team member Abi Reader said: “The Wooden Cow initiative is simple. A local business or school sponsors a wooden cow for their chosen school class to decorate and to plant up with whatever they want. We would like schools to send us a photo collage of their decorated cow, which will have been planted up by the children, and up to 200 words on their idea and an explanation of their interpretation of ‘Grow Your Own’. The winners will be announced at the Smallholding and Countryside Festival at the Royal Welsh Showground on 18/19 May 2019 where all collages will be displayed. All entries must be submitted by Friday 10^th May. The class who wins the competition will get one child ticket per class pupil to attend the Royal Welsh Show, with two further adult tickets for the teacher and teaching assistant of the winning class.”

At the launch – the Cows on Tour team gave children in Blwyddyn 1 and 2 a whistle-stop lesson of what farmers do in terms of looking after animals and how food is produced. They carried out butter making activities and smoothie making, tying in the nutritional benefit of milk for the development of healthy bones, which is vital for keeping up with busy class learning.

Mrs Kathryn Elias, Ysgol Y Bannau said: “The theme this term has been 'Small Zoo', so we have been learning about a variety of different animals and how they need to be looked after.  We are thrilled to be a part of the 'Cows on Tour' launch as it reminds the children of the importance of farming to our lives and to our local community, whilst teaching them also about where our food comes from. We very much look forward to collecting the children's ideas and decorating our wooden cows as part of the competition.”

The wooden cow has been kindly donated by A C Phillips Contracting to Ysgol y Bannau for them to launch the initiative. The cows are £50 to sponsor and all proceeds raised from this initiative will go to the DPJ Foundation and R.A.B.I. Those wishing to get involved with the ‘Wooden Cow - Grow Your Own’ initiative should contact the Cows on Tour team on their Facebook page or email Q293b25Ub3VyZmFybWVyc0BnbWFpbC5jb20=. The wood has been donated free of charge from Premier Forest Products and built for free by the South Wales Woodwork Club.

Abi Reader concluded: “We really hope we get a good uptake of schools who will present us with their cows at the Smallholding and Countryside Festival on 18/19 May at Llanelwedd which will be the last two days of the Cows on Tour tour of Wales. Local show societies are more than welcome to contact us too if they wish to hold their own local competitions for local shows too.”