jim In the press!

'Lamb-tastic new role for farmer Jim'

A sheep farmer from Warminster is enjoying newfound celebrity status following his starring role in a Waitrose advertising campaign.

Jim Dufosee, 43, who has been supplying the supermarket with lamb for 12 years, is pictured with his flock of Dorset sheep, which will appear in a range of national magazines.

Mr Dufosee, who runs Tascroft Farm near Warminster said: "I've been getting a bit of stick for it and there have been a few defaced copies of it hanging around." This is the third advert he has done for the store.

The first one featured his hands on a shepherd's crook and the other was a TV advert of his dog, Mog, jumping over a wall chasing sheep. Mr Dufosee said: "This time there was only one girl who came to photograph me, but when they did the TV ad there was about 50 people here.

"They even built a brick wall in my field because we didn't have one and brought turf along in case the grass didn't look right." The advert, which appeared on Channel 4 and ITV, was originally going to show his other dog, Flick, but she was scared of the whirring noise the camera made and ran off, so Mog dutifully took over the role.

The picture in the current advert took a whole day to take, but luckily he has a reliable team on hand to keep the farm ticking over while he gets ready for his close ups. He said: "On the first one, where they took the picture of my hands, I had just cut my finger so they kept rubbing chalk into the wound to stop it bleeding.

"There were no make-up teams or anything like that though." Mr Dufosee, who lives at the farm with his wife, Jacqui, 43, and two sons, Sam, 14, and Joe, 13, farms around 900 hectares of land on Salisbury Plain and is in the final stages of becoming a fully organic farm.

He said: "I've no idea if Waitrose want to do any other ads with me, but I'll always try and oblige because they've been very good to us, especially through the foot-and-mouth crisis. "They always say it's a family business, but they really do look after us."

Jim as he appears in

the Waitrose Advert

Tascroft Farm : Folly Lane : Warminster : Wiltshire : BA12 7AR Tel/Fax: 01985 214559

www.jdufosee-pedigreelivestock.org