A WELL known New Forest farmer has turned teacher during lockdown.

Bryan Pass, better known as Farmer Bryan to visitors to Longdown Activity Farm, is releasing an educational animal video for young children each day.

Bryan and his wife Dawn and family, who have been running the family attraction for 37 years, were so overwhelmed by a fundraiser which has raised more than £36,000 to help feed their animals during their coronavirus closure,that they're trying to give something back to fans of the farm.

Bryan said: "As we cannot welcome you to Longdown Activity Farm at the moment, we thought it would be a nice idea to bring the farm to you by doing our best to update you with all our news.

"At this time of year we would normally be welcoming lots of school groups on to the farm, and teaching large numbers of excited children all about our different farm animals. In an effort to reach out to these children, we have made a series of short videos about some of the favourite farm animals and distributed the footage on Facebook and YouTube to provide a learning opportunity for primary school children, and a bit of fun for our regular visitors.

"Our little videos seem to have been very popular with children and adults, and I have had some schools and playgroups sharing them with their pupils. Now, I do know that I won't receive an Oscar for my acting skills as I keep forgetting what to say. Unfortunately, all my mistakes are there for everyone to see as I don't know how to edit my videos, but that probably makes the whole thing more amusing. I did manage not to swear when Pearl the Shire horse made an unexpected appearance in the donkey video!"

The series of videos, on subjects including cows, chickens, goats, rabbits, Shetland ponies and Shire horses, are aimed at primary school aged children.

They are informative and light-hearted and can be watched as part of a lesson or just for fun.

Multi-talented Farmer Bryan has also previously penned a series of books about the adventures of the animals on his farm, which are still available to purchase.

While Longdown and the farm shop are currently closed, produce boxes and eggs are available to click and collect.