Waitrose and other top business leaders have partnered with The Prince's Countryside Fund to support Britain's rural areas.

The Prince's Countryside Fund, is a unique collaboration of businesses working together to secure a sustainable future for British agriculture and the wider rural economy, launched by HRH The Prince of Wales.

The Prince's Countryside Fund is the brainchild of The Prince of Wales who has a long-held commitment to supporting Britain's hard pressed rural areas. The Fund is raising money from a wide range of businesses, including Waitrose who have responded to the Prince's call to action to improve the long-term viability of the British countryside and its rural communities. The intention is to inspire other businesses and the general public to get involved and recognise the importance of the countryside to the nation's well-being and the wider British economy.

"The vision and commitment of The Prince of Wales has brought together in common cause this extraordinary alliance of food businesses. The Fund will be a lifeline for Britain's most vulnerable farmers and communities, helping them to secure a sustainable future for themselves," said Mark Price, Managing Director of Waitrose and Chairman of The Prince's Countryside Fund trustee board.

The funding raised will be channelled into providing grants to projects, large and small, that are delivering the three core objectives of The Prince's Countryside Fund. These objectives focus on improving the sustainability of British farming and rural communities, targeting the areas of greatest need; reconnecting consumers with countryside issues; and supporting farming crisis charities through a dedicated emergency funding stream.

Waitrose are proud to be one of the companies supporting the launch, as we already have a special connection to the British countryside through the products we make and sell. The Prince's Countryside Fund logo will feature on Waitrose own brand milk to communicate to our customers this commitment.

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Last Saturday we sheared the sheep, we had hoped to start at around 7.30am in the morning but a completely unexpected shower at 5am scuppered that plan. You can't shear the wool when it is damp because it won't flow over the cutters and storing damp wool is a bad idea.

It's only the ewes we shear. They need to be shorn to stop them getting too hot and to reduce the incidence of fly strike, caused by flies laying their eggs on the animals, which occurs during the summer months. The lambs are now between seven and nine weeks of age and although they are getting quite big they don't need shearing. The first job we have to do is to shed the lambs through a drafting gate to separate them from their mothers which creates a bit of a din as they call for each other.

The shearers then arrive and set up their equipment and off they go. Because they are paid per head, the quicker they work the more they earn - in wet weather they earn nothing so when conditions are right they really go for it. The shearers are incredibly skilled and can shear a ewe in less than a minute and a half. Two of the shearers we use shear all around the world for most of the year.

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