How a ‘mind-bendingly daft’ Goats on Zoom service made a Manc farm famous
Cronkshaw Fold Farm started hiring out goats to Zoom meetings back in April 2020 as a joke. But the service has now raised thousands and kept staff in work.
Zoom meetings have become part and parcel of everyday life during the pandemic.
In lieu of face-to-face contact, millions have turned to video conferencing platforms to host virtual meet-ups – with Joe Public, MPs and even Royal Family members communicating via video link.
But Zoom sessions – regardless of whether they’re for work meetings or social catchups – tend to follow a predictable pattern.
At least one person is impatiently urged to take themselves off mute. Other participants verbally bump into one another at deafening volume. And some bits of the conversation are permanently lost in a garbled, pixelated, blurry vortex.
Sometimes there’s a quiz, too.
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It’s the same thing day in, day out. So it’s no wonder, then, that one farm’s attempts to change the Zoom status quo have gone down so well.
Cronkshaw Fold in Rossendale – around 40 minutes north of Manchester city centre – is home to sheep, chickens and dogs, but it’s their resident goats who have catapulted the farm into the news headlines.
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The farm has been hiring out their goats for Zoom meetings right around the UK – offering some refreshing comic relief from video conferencing cliches in the process.
Cronkshaw Fold Farm
It all started back in April 2020.
Farmer Dot McCarthy decided to pop a message on the website that confirmed Cronkshaw Fold’s goats would be happy to get involved in any video calls moving ahead.
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If anyone wanted to invite a goat onto their next Zoom call, they could pay £5 and staff would make it happen.
But Dot didn’t actually expect people to get in touch.
“It was a joke!” she tells The Manc.
“Bored mates stuck doing home-working had shared stories about the mundanity of video calls so I said they should add a goat and see what their boss does.
“And now, yeah, it’s got a bit out of hand!”
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It definitely has – but in the best possible way.
Cronkshaw Fold’s goats have proven so camera-friendly that they’ve netted the farm over £50,000 – a vital lifeline at a time when doors have been shut to visitors.
The first two members of staff were hired just before the pandemic began, and whilst things looked bleak initially, the Goat Zoom service has successfully kept the duo in work.
Any extra money beyond the payroll will be put towards making the farm more eco-friendly – switching to renewable energy, electric vehicles and greener farming practices for the lowest carbon food production.
Almost one year on from launching, Zoom Goats is still a wild success – with people from all walks of life requesting the company of these furry farm animals for all kinds of reasons; from family breakfasts to butting in on marketing meetings.
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“The pranksters are the best!” says Dot.
“Anyone sneaking a goat in without any pre-explanation. The confusion and mild panic – ‘Is it a troll? No it’s a goat!’ – that ensues is hilarious.
“We’ve had all sorts; stag dos, toddler birthdays, family catch-ups – Gran and Grandad’s reactions are golden.
“We’ve even had meetings where there’s so many people the goat can go unseen… until it bleats in the middle of a speaker’s presentation.”
Anyone hoping to get themselves an interrupting goat can also take their pick from the different personalities on the farm – with a webpage packed with info dedicated to each individual animal.
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“Obviously this service is completely ridiculous, but that’s kind of the point,” says Dot.
“It’s funny because it is so mind-bendingly daft.”
Cronkshaw Fold has also grabbed headlines for running other innovative services involving its animals since lockdown – including virtual farm tours and bee adoption services.
Staff have also run Goat Yoga sessions in the past – where participants can “snuggle some goats at a safe distance from other humans”.
Naturally, with the current rules in place, this service is paused right now. But the farm is looking at potentially bringing back the exercise classes when restrictions are loosened a little later in the year.
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For now at least, Cronkshaw Fold Farm is focused on connecting people with animals via camera.
They’ve introduced bleating to meetings. And it’s tickled Britain pink.
Learn more about Cronkshaw Fold Farm’s Goats on Zoom service on their website.
Feature
Liam Broady is on the comeback – here’s why you need to watch out for him at Wimbledon
The Manc
Local tennis player Liam Broady is quietly rising back up the ranks on the ITF Tour, and here’s why we think you should watch out for him come Wimbledon 2026 this summer.
He is physical proof that the ATP Tour ranking means so much to a player’s career.
The Stockport-born tennis player has suffered many injury setbacks since turning pro in 2014. With a host of ankle and back injuries plaguing his playing career, he has had to turn to the ITF (International Tennis Federation) Tour to climb the rankings once again.
He is currently placed at 283* on the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Tour after reaching two semi-finals in the space of a month.
With wins on two of Portugal’s hard courts in Faro and Santo António, the 32-year-old has climbed from rank 303 at the start of the year to under the threshold in less than three months.
His hard work on outdoor courts is paying off as his seeding is slowly improving, and his opponents are becoming less of a challenge.
For the unititated, the ATP ranking is decided by a points system that determines your playing level, and therefore who you can possibly draw, with lower seeds getting tougher games as they need more points, and vice versa.
These point tallies factor into every win, loss, serve, and shot as it propels you up or down the table.
With an injury over Christmas, the Stopfordian Team GB player came back stronger for the start of the annual tournament calendar and now looks to be in fighting form on the ITF Tour.
He’s definitely had to tackle some obstacles over the years, both on and off the court…
Competing solely on outdoor hard courts to gain his fitness levels back is necessary, but the grass courts – his speciality – will come around with time and consistent form, with Wimbledon being his home tournament and his highlight of the competitive calendar.
His career best ranking was 93, after becoming the first British wildcard entry to beat an ATP top five player in 2023 when defeating Casper Rudd on Wimbledon’s centre court.
His win against the Norwegian in round two sent him into the top 100 rankings for the first time, and into the shining spotlight alongside British tennis stars.
The adverse effects of time away from the tour are clear to see with Broady’s peaks and dips in the table below; this means taking a hit to player motivation, game-to-game momentum and teamworking within doubles pairs.
Liam Broady’s career rankings progression chart. (Credit: ATP Tour)
It is a likely situation for players to neglect their doubles career without the added stress of injury, so if they are to arise, it does not just impact individual physicality levels but also communication between doubles pairs.
A fellow British player with similar injury problems is Emma Raducanu, who rose to fame with a shocking US Open grand slam win as a qualifier. Since her win, she has had multiple surgeries, which saw her plummet down WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) standings due to time spent off court.
The issues that come with injury upsets can make a career really difficult to reclaim, even at a young age; tour rankings can be brutal on game time and match opponents, such as Broady’s Wimbledon draw against Holland’s Van De Zandschulp and Raducanu’s recent draw against American no.3 Anisimova.
We hope to see Team GB’s athletes fit and ready to fight on tour, and we have a strong feeling we’ll see native talent Broady back in the spotlight where he belongs.
Gig review | KEO at the O2 Ritz in Manchester – Sometimes you just KNOW…
Danny Jones
Fontaines D.C., Turnstile, Wunderhorse, Sleep Token, Neck Deep; sometimes it only takes a few listens and a live show to KNOW that a band is going to catch fire and go on to be huge – for Audio North and KEO, it only took a few.
But having now seen KEO for a third time, collectively, we’re more convinced than ever that they’re going to be massive.
Sadly, a prior engagement meant that we just missed catching the support act, Tooth (though we did hear great things rumbling around the eager young crowd), but there was no chance we were going to miss this lot show off how very good they are at what they do.
And there was absolutely no chance they were going to disappoint us, either…
We first caught this fast-rising post-grunge outfit live in action at Kendal Calling last year, where they somehow turned a daytime slot on the Woodlands stage into a moody mid-evening mosh.
They had even less fully produced and officially released music out then, but then we had the pleasure of watching them at The Key Club in Leeds this past October, and they were even better; punchier, more graduated at their game, and their fandom seemed plenty strong already.
As it turns out, that same progression proved true in Manchester, as KEO played their biggest headline show to date, and that same cult following only appeared more fervent than ever.
They might be based down in the capital, with roots in Portugal, brothers Finn and Conor having grown up there, but they certainly know a thing or two about how to please a Northern audience.
Of course, we’re sure they go off just as hard down in the capital – in fact, we’re certain they do – but the response they got from two sold-out rooms full of Yorkshire folk and us equally discerning Mancs felt like they had well and truly passed the litmus.
With flying colours, may we add.
Everything from the raw ’90s rock feel to the aesthetic hits just right. (Credit: Audio North)
It’s also worth noting that these London lads have built up this hype like very few ever manage to do: by developing a sterling live reputation right from the off and putting top-notch shows first.
For those unaware, they only just released their first five-track EP, Siren, back in June 2025, yet they’ve been packing out venues and festival stages pretty much since day dot, with die-hards growing their love for the band via performance and initially only learning the lyrics through social clips and snippets online.
While some have questioned why they’ve been chosen to headline this year’s Neighbourhood Festival here in Manchester city centre before they’ve even dropped a debut album, you only need to hear the entire Ritz screaming back the lyrics to ‘I Lied, Amber’, ‘Thorn’ and ‘Hands’ to know they fit the bill.
Frontman Finn pours so much unbridled power and emotion into his vocals, guitarist Jimmy Lanwern didn’t even need to look to know that his riffs were ripping the roof off, and they’ve quickly moved far beyond the early Wunderhorse parallels – they’re their own beast just waiting to be fully woken.
The Manc -
3rd February 2021 
