VIDEO & PICTURES: Young farmers greet Prince Charles during Derbyshire visit

Through the Prince’s Countryside Fund, £93,000 has been given to Farming Life Centre in Blackwell, near Buxton, which provides support and training for farmers.

Chairman of the Derbyshire Young Farmers Club, Kate Wainwright, met the Prince.

She said: “He was a lovely man and genuinely interested in how we have benefited from the grant.

“He asked how the farming industry was going and when we told him we have a long hard winter ahead of us he wished us well.

“He was so relaxed and easy to talk to and he was pleased that we were still enthusiastic about farming.”

The Farming Life Centre is a charitable organisation providing a range of business and health-related services to the farming and rural Peak District community in Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

It was set up in the wake of the foot and mouth crisis and this year marks its tenth anniversary.

Andrew Gregory-Campeau hopes to take over Blackwell Hall Farm which has been in the family since 1892, and is where the centre is based. He has benefited from the training and support from the Countryside Fund.

The 20-year-old said: “Being a farmer can be quite lonely when you are out on your tractor all day, so it’s great there is place that people can meet socially.

“I have always known I wanted to be a farmer and now I’m studying agriculture at Harper Adams University, but it’s thanks to the grant that I can get the right training that makes me legal in such things such as pesticide spraying and first aid.”

The Prince also took part in a stock-judging competition of four lambs.

Stuart Mycock explained to His Royal Highness what makes a good sheep: “A good lamb is one with plenty of flesh cover that will make it appealing to a butcher.”

Elizabeth Buchanan, Trustee for the Countryside Fund, added: “The fund is vital to farmers who are starting out and also to retired farmers as it gives them a sense of community.

“Farmers are the heart and soul of the countryside so it is essential we give them every support we can to continue to be the backbone of the country.”