A EWE in the flock at Overbury Farms is proving to be one in a thousand.

Sheep have a reputation for being stupid, but this ewe called Moneypenny is a cut above the rest of the flock because she has very quickly learned to beg for extra food.

Jake Freestone, farm manager at Overbury Farms, said: "She is quite clever in that she knows what to do in order to get extra special treatment and she is still only a year old."

Her party trick is to stand on her back legs and beg for food very much like a dog begs.

The young ewe, he said, probably picked up a few tips from a much older ewe nicknamed Phantom, so called because she has a distinct line down the front of her face brown one side and white the other, much like the Phantom of the Opera.

Over the years Phantom learned to know where there was extra food to be had and the younger ewe, a North Country Mule, learned from her.

Lambing on Overbury Farms is in full swing at the moment. "We started a couple of weeks ago and lambing in the thousand strong flock takes about a month.

"All the ewes are lambed inside and stay inside for about 48 hours to mother them up so that they don't get separated when they go out, hopefully into the sunshine on Bredon Hill," Mr Freestone said.