A Lancashire livestock farmer says he will buy fertiliser after winning £30,000 with the People's Postcode Lottery.
Bob Atkinson, 77, landed the cash windfall when the postcode BB12 8TZ was announced as a winner with the lottery on Sunday (20 March).
When People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador Judie McCourt revealed the prize, the Padiham farmer was visibly lost for words.
His wife Margaret stepped in and said: "Oh lovely, great. Wow. That's a lot."
After news of the win settled, Bob's thoughts immediately turned to how he plans to spend his winnings.
Margaret was quick to comment on her husband's plans, jokingly saying: “I know what he’ll do. He’ll buy some sheep.”
However, the livestock producer said he plans to use the money to buy fertiliser following a surge in prices.
He said: "We need some fertiliser for spring and that's gone up to nearly £1,000 a tonne. So that's one of the first things we'll need to buy.”
Bob has been in the farming business all his life. He was brought up on the farm next door before moving to his farm with Margaret over fifty years ago.
He spoke about the concerns around growing enough grass for their livestock this year: “We were thinking we might have to manage without the fertiliser.
"It would have been a bit of a worry whether we could get enough grass without it. But with this bit of help, we’ll probably be able to buy some.
“The area of grass we cut is around 100 acres. We need it to keep these animals going. We have about 50 cattle, 150 sheep at the moment and a number of horses on livery.”
He added: “That’s our life, that’s what we do.”
