Australian Farmer Forms Heart with Sheep in Tribute to His Late Aunt
Ben Jackson is an Australian sheep farmer in Guyra, which is in the Australian state of New South Wales. His aunt passed after a two-year battle with cancer, and the funeral was being held more than 200 miles away in Brisbane.
Jackson was unable to attend the funeral due to strict coronavirus border closures in Australia, so he found a creative way to honor her.
As he was feeding his pregnant ewes (female sheep), he scattered the grain by hand in the shape of a heart. A drone captured the special moment from above, and the sheep huddled around the grain.
“My aunty loved coming down to the farm and poking around so I just thought a heart for her would be very appropriate,” Jackson told ABC News.
“I just hope that when I did it, she was having a peep through the clouds and was able to see it,” he told 7News in Sydney.
Jackson calls this “sheep art,” and it is not the first time he has used livestock to tell a story. During the drought in 2018, he “got a little bit despondent about going and feeding grain every day” to his sheep. So, he purchased a drone and began creating messages with the grain.
Jackson notes that farming can be a lonely profession, so he likes to create entertainment and exercise his creative muscle.
“This heart that I’ve done for my auntie, it certainly seems like it’s had a bit of an effect across Australia,” he said to NBC News, in reference to the outpouring of love on social media. “Maybe we all just need to give ourselves a big virtual hug.”
Image source: BBC
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