A SPRINGTIME prank has led to an increase in visitors at a Davenham farm after it won national exposure for its rare breeds.

Riverside Organic, in Whatcroft, featured in a number of UK newspapers after a story leaked out that farmer Simon Bennett had unexpectedly bred six-legged lambs.

The story, which featured first in the Daily Mirror, was, of course, an April Fools joke and found itself in the top 10 lists of April Fools in the Evening Standard and Metro.

Simon said: “I think the article itself had 100,000 views, maybe more than that and with Facebook too I think it went viral.

“We made five or six national papers.

“It has been a little bit bonkers since then and we’ve had a lot of people come and look at the lambs.

“You’d be surprised how many people were taken in by it, at least in the short term.”

The story said that as Riverside is an organic farm there was no genetic modification or science involved in breeding the lambs, it was purely down to Mother Nature.

Simon was quoted in the article as hoping the two extra legs would help reduce the price of meat for consumers.

The joke came about with the help of Simon’s friend Ioan Said, a professional photographer, and his brother’s girlfriend Vikki Thomas, who worked in the media industry and made use of her contacts to get the story out.

Riverside Organic includes a shop, cafe and Farm Tots sessions, where youngsters have chance to feed the four-legged lambs.

“I think they’re the fattest lambs in the world,” Simon said.

“They’re very cute, they’re like dogs and just follow you around.”