This year a handful of the White Post Farm gang took a trip to KEEPERFEST at Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park. KEEPERFEST is a festival dedicated to all the professional animal keepers in the UK, and Farmer Tom is here to tell you all about it!

Five members of the team (Freya, Craig, Katie, Jim & myself), made the 3-hour journey down to Jimmy’s Farm in Ipswich, ready to set up camp for the weekend. The trip got off to a great start when we stopped off at the service station, as I managed to arrive at the perfect time for a McDonald’s breakfast, and then at 11:01, a Big-Mac meal as well… it had to be done! Once we arrived, we pitched our tents, put our beverages on ice, and then headed out to explore the site and network with other zookeepers! It was great having a wander round and seeing the rare-breed animals, as well as the exotic side of things, especially as we were a variety of staff from multiple departments. We even stumbled across Farmer Katie’s favourite, the Capybara! It was interesting to see the similar species they had, such as the armadillo’s. This allowed us to see how we could potentially do things differently here at the farm, and also what we do well! I have even been trying to persuade Farmer Rebecca to get some Middle White Pigs like what we saw… they’re so cool and remind me of ghost bats with four legs! After we had a wander round, we headed back to the campsite and Farmer Craig and myself quickly be-friended some reptile-geeks. We spoke to them about rock-work that they had done, similar to our new reptile house, which was super interesting! After a long day of networking, we had few drinks and played some cards back at the tent. It was nice to spend some time with the team outside of work!

The next day was full of interesting talks and workshops, we even all took part in the firearms training which was pretty cool! This was run by Chris Wilkinson from Noah’s Farm Park, who also taught us how to give vaccinations to animals using darts, which was an interesting new perspective. At this point, we all were interested in a few different talks by inspectors, conservationists and digital media staff. So KEEPERFEST was actually a great place to network for everybody, from marketing to keeping the animals. One talk that we were all interested in,  was how Jimmy’s Farm came to be what it is today… where we found out that he always said he would never get polar bears, and now is actually getting them! We also had a talk with Adam Henson from Country-file and Cotswolds Farm Park, and Farmer Freya was super excited to meet him. She was having the ultimate fan-girl moment! We took lots of group photos and attended lots of great talks. My favourite talk was ‘How to be a good Curator’, which was quite relevant for myself, and also the ‘Do’s and don’ts on Inspection day’, which was actually really funny. Another good one was ‘Emergency Procedures’, such as escaped animals, which does happen sometimes and is always important to have a training refresher for everyone!

Myself and Craig even had a go at the sumo-wrestling which was super fun, even if Craig did absolutely wipe the floor with me. Farmer Craig also won the best time for the rodeo-camel with 34-seconds, compared to my poor attempt of 20-seconds. We spent the rest of the day networking and catching up with some familiar faces from places like Tattersall Farm Park. It was interesting to speak to other keepers who we had not interacted with before, such as Rhino keepers, who had lots of stories to tell! We even ended the night on the dance floor with lots of different keepers, even one in pink flamingo shorts! On the Sunday we attended a few more talks before we set off for the long journey home. They even offered an introduction to bee-keeping course, however we didn’t need to attend this as we already have the wonderful Craig & Freya who are already very well-trained in this!

I thought that Jimmy’s Farm was a very nice place, and it was a well-organised weekend, with a chance to meet and get to know different people. It was great to get out with everyone, rather than sat talking behind a screen to people, seeing each others passion for their roles. I think this weekend showed us all that we can be even bigger than we are, especially with the hardworking and determined staff we have here at the farm. I cannot wait to see where White Post Farm will be in 5-10 years time!