William and Grace head for Newark Show

Horncastle schoolboy, William Lovely, will be heading to Newark & Nottinghamshire County Show (14 and 15 May) for his first show with his 8 month-old Belgian Blue calf, Grace 2010 otherwise known as Speckle.

What makes 15 year-old Williams story so special is that he is autistic and bought Speckle, his first calf, with money saved from doing odd jobs last summer. Not only that, but he has hand-reared Speckle, feeding her from a bottle, as the mother died soon after the calfs birth. William gave the calf her registered name of Grace 2010 in memory of his grandmother.

While his parents, Jan and Ian, come from farming backgrounds they do not have any land of their own so Speckle is kept on a friends farm at nearby Bucknall. William goes to see her twice a day and has spent many hours training Speckle to walk beside him with a halter. His mother Jan says: She follows him like a Labrador dog!

William attends mainstream Banovallum School in Horncastle and has spent his Easter holidays preparing Speckle for her big day. He is indebted to John Barter for allowing him to keep Speckle on his farm at Bucknall and to Andrew Scarborough from Driffield for the help he has given William in training the calf.

Speckle is entered in two classes at the show, Continental Heifer Any Weight and in a Beef Calf category. William himself will also be appearing in a Young Handler class with an animal exhibited by another owner.