City Farm

BBC Learning English

London Life
City Farm

Jackie:  Hello welcome to London Life. Who said that

London is all hooting 1 taxis

and rumbling 2 buses! It is a big noisy city, but there's a

part of it that sounds like this… Welcome to Hackney City

Farm! A farm in the middle of London, complete with pigs,

sheep and goats. We're going to hear from the farm's

manager, Chris Pounds. As you listen, try to answer these

questions: for how long has the farm existed? And why was

it set up?

Chris Pounds

The farm’s been here 20 years and some local people had an

idea to have a farm in

London so that children could see farm animals.

Jackie:  Did you get the answers? The farm has been

there for 20 years. It was set up so children could see

farm animals. As you can imagine, there aren't many pigs or

chickens wandering the streets of London, so some young

children in the city never get to see any animals, apart

from the occasional bird or dog! Now it's time for the next

listening comprehension question: What was there on the

site of the farm before it was built?

Chris Pounds

So it started off on this site, which is an old brewery 3.

Jackie:  So before the farm, there was a brewery –

a brewery – a place where the alcoholic 4 drink, beer, is

made. Chris is going to tell us now about some of the

animals on the farm. How many different kinds of animals

does he name?
 
Chris Pounds

So it started off on this site, which is an old brewery. We

’ve got a large courtyard with cobbled stones in the

middle of it. And we have animal houses all the way round

the outside, and then the animals are let out during the

day and can go to some fields and paddocks that we have. So

around us we’ve got chickens running around, some sheep

out in the field, a donkey that brays 6 at us, we have calves 7

and pigs, some turkey some geese, so many different

animals.

Jackie:  The answer is: seven different kinds of

animals. There are chickens and sheep. A donkey that brays

– the noise donkeys make – we say they bray 5. There are

also calves (which are baby cows), pigs. And there are two

types of birds: turkeys and geese – both birds that we

traditionally at Christmas here in Britain! But seeing

animals isn't the only thing you can do at the farm. What

are some of the other activities?

Chris Pound

As well as the main courtyard and the fields, we’ve got

the main building – so we have a café in there, we have

craft classes and people sitting eating and things. And

then outside, where we are now, is actually in the garden.

We have lots of volunteers growing vegetables and getting

involved in learning about where food comes from.

Jackie:  Did you catch any of those? As well as

seeing animals, they can go to a café and have some food.

There are craft classes, where you learn practical skills

with your hands. People can grow vegetables and learn about

where food comes from. The animals at the city farm are not

there just to be looked at. As at all farms, they also

serve to produce food. Listen to Chris again.

Chris Pound

We have, I would say, probably about three to four hundred

chickens on site and we sell about 10,000 eggs a year. The

calves come from a dairy farm, so we send those back to the

dairy farm once they've grown up. So they come as young

calves and we send them
 
as heifers back to the dairy farm. The pigs – they're not

in breeding form any more, so we've just got those for

show. The lambs, we sell every year. We don't sell them

straight to slaughter 8, so we sell them to a market, where

somebody will buy them and either rear them or take them on

to slaughter themselves. And then, things like with the

chickens, once they get to the end of their lives, instead

of having them killed or anything, we normally send them

out to an old farm so they can retire in peace. So we're

not big on killing 9 lots of animals, but we do try and make

sure that we're productive.

Jackie:  So the eggs from the chickens are sold.

When they've grown up to become heifers (which are young

cows who haven't given birth yet), the cows go
to dairy farms – the places where they'll be used to make

milk and cheese. Chris says the pigs are not for breeding

anymore, which means they can't have children - or

'offspring'. So they're 'for show', which means they're

just there to be looked at. Chris says the lambs don't go

'straight to slaughter': they're not killed or

'slaughtered 10', instead they're sold on to somewhere else.

And when the chickens get old, they're allowed to relax in

peace. As Chris said, they're not 'big on' killing animals

– 'not big on': they don't do it much. Finally, let's hear

about one of the farm's star attractions. What's he?

Chris Pound

We have a donkey here called Larry, who’s very popular

with local people, and we've been out on local parades with

him and he's often out and about. The local pubs support

him and they like to see him quite often. And he’s

actually quite busy – at Christmas time he does nativity

at Westminster Cathedral.  And there [are] 2000 children

[who] turn up and he marches down the central aisle 11 there,

so he’s very popular.

Jackie:  The star of the farm is Larry, who is a

donkey. He's also rather famous.

Every Christmas he goes to the famous Westminster Cathedral

in London to be part of Christmas celebrations – not

something many farm animals get to do! That's it for now,

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