Farm Yard Ales win Prince's Countryside Fund

Farm Yard Ales successfully won a brand new Land Rover Discovery Sport through The Prince’s Countryside Fund.

Steven Holmes, Director of the newly established Farm Yard Ales, already has big plans for his new piece of kit which will help develop the farm based micro-brewery in Cockerham, Lancashire.

Louise Kite, of Lancashire County Council, brought the Prince’s Countryside Fund Land Rover Bursary to the attention of Farm Yard Ales.

The Land Rover Bursary aims to help young farmers keep the UK farming industry moving forward, by choosing five young people to have the use of a Land Rover Discovery Sport for a year; to support their farming or rural business’.

Application for the Bursary involved completing an online form and creating a short online video (which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyEEBINLsFI), the outtakes of which still raise a few smiles.

With the success of Farm Yard Ales application, representatives from The Prince’s Countryside Fund and Land Rover visited Steven at his family farm, a chance for him to talk through his craft beer ideas, plans and aspirations.

The farm visit was a success and a day later, Steven got the call he wasn’t sure would ever come; saying he had been successful and would need to head South to pick up Farm Yard Ales new Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Along with the four other successful applicants, Steven picked up Farm Yard Ales’ new car from Loseley Park after a day spent off-roading in a Discovery Sport and networking with the other winners before driving the 265 miles back to Cockerham in the new vehicle.

The car has landed at the right time for Farm Yard Ales, as the build of the microbrewery begins and the start up of the business really gets underway.

The Discovery Sport will be one of the hardest working machines Farm Yard Ales has, being used for meetings, collecting items, delivering samples and towing a cask or two when the ales are brewed.

Steven would like to thank The Prince's Countryside Fund and Land Rover for the amazing opportunity and wishes the other winners the best of luck with their projects. To follow the progress of Farm Yard Ales, please follow the business on Snapchat: farmyardales, Twitter: @farmyardales, Instagram: farmyardales and on Facebook.