LEAF Open Farm Sunday Search

British farmers rally public support on LEAF Open Farm Sunday – farming’s annual open day

On Sunday 11th June, over 250 farmers across Britain welcomed thousands of people onto farms for farming’s annual open day. Managed by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), LEAF Open Farm Sunday offers a wonderful opportunity for visitors to get closer to farming and the people that make it happen. Each event is unique, each farm is different and every farmer too, but what they all share is a passion for farming, amazing expertise, and a commitment to caring for the countryside.

Vis­it­ing a work­ing farm pro­vid­ed a bril­liant oppor­tu­ni­ty for peo­ple to talk direct­ly with the farm­ers that pro­duce their food and learn about what is involved in sus­tain­able food pro­duc­tion, a top­ic that is at the fore­front of many households. 

Her Roy­al High­ness The Duchess of Edin­burgh vis­it­ed Hamp­ton Estate Farms in Sur­rey today (11th June 2023) to cel­e­brate LEAF Open Farm Sun­day – farming’s annu­al open day. Dur­ing her vis­it The Duchess saw first-hand what farm­ing deliv­ers, from meet­ing the expert bovine vet who cares for the estate’s pedi­gree herd of Sus­sex beef cows, learn­ing about the his­to­ry and process of hop grow­ing, through to see­ing the lat­est John Deere trac­tor and direct drill tech­nol­o­gy and hear­ing about how regen­er­a­tive farm­ing pre­serves and enhances biodiversity. 

The Duchess met some inspi­ra­tional young peo­ple to hear about how they are forg­ing their careers in the sec­tor. She also met the Estate’s butch­er, Simon the Butch­er’ who cap­tains Team GB in the World Butch­ers’ Chal­lenge, and aquat­ic bio­di­ver­si­ty expert Pete (the Pond) Bir­chall who designed the new­ly cre­at­ed edu­ca­tion­al fresh­wa­ter pond. It was an all-round field to fork expe­ri­ence with The Duchess also enjoy­ing sam­pling wild roe veni­son sausages from Hampton.

Annabel Shack­le­ton, LEAF Open Farm Sun­day man­ag­er said: 

With the public’s grow­ing inter­est around the envi­ron­ment and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, farming’s annu­al open day is so impor­tant. It offers a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for farm­ers to build sup­port for the indus­try, show­cas­ing the very best of what they do whilst being ful­ly sup­port­ed with resources, meet­ings, event guid­ance and more. Not only have farm­ers col­lec­tive­ly raised the pro­file of British food and farm­ing, but we have also inspired a new gen­er­a­tion of agri-food professionals. 

There is still a real lack of under­stand­ing about where our food comes from, and the full impact of all that farm­ers do. By tak­ing part in LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, farm­ers con­tin­ue to help change people’s per­cep­tions and under­stand­ing of the indus­try. We’re call­ing on all farm­ers to think about how they can get involved in next year’s LEAF Open Farm Sun­day on 9th June and have a real, last­ing pos­i­tive impact in 2024!”

The feed­back has been huge­ly pos­i­tive, from indus­try and vis­i­tors alike. Mrs Shack­le­ton con­grat­u­lat­ed all involved: 

We’d like to say a big thank you to every­one who made LEAF Open Farm Sun­day 2023 anoth­er huge suc­cess, par­tic­u­lar­ly all the host farm­ers, vol­un­teers and our spon­sors.”

Next year’s LEAF Open Farm Sun­day will take place on Sun­day 9th June 2024.

For more infor­ma­tion on how farm­ers can be involved, vis­it www​.farm​sun​day​.org. To keep up to date with the LEAF Open Farm Sun­day cam­paign on social media, fol­low @OpenFarmSunday.

Watch LOFS 2023 high­lights video here: 

EDI­TORS NOTES:

  • Man­aged by LEAF (Link­ing Envi­ron­ment And Farm­ing), the farming’s annu­al open day has been a high­light in the farm­ing cal­en­dar since 2006, offer­ing vis­i­tors the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn about food pro­duc­tion, farm­ing and the envi­ron­ment first hand. LEAF Open Farm Sun­day is spon­sored nation­al­ly by: AHDB, Arla Foods, Asda, BASF, Co-op, Defra, Farm­ers Week­ly, Fron­tier Agri­cul­ture, John Deere, LEAF Mar­que, M&S, NFU, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Wait­rose. All of which play a huge part in encour­ag­ing farm­ers to get involved, pro­mot­ing the event to the pub­lic, as well as sup­port on the day. 
  • Keep up to date with all the LEAF Open Farm Sun­day news and join in the online con­ver­sa­tions using #LOFS23:
    • Twit­ter: @OpenFarmSunday
    • Face­book: @ LEAFOpenFarmSunday 
    • Insta­gram: @OpenFarmSunday
  • LEAF Open Farm Sun­day is man­aged by LEAF (Link­ing Envi­ron­ment And Farm­ing) – the lead­ing organ­i­sa­tion deliv­er­ing and pro­mot­ing cli­mate pos­i­tive action, thriv­ing, resilient and exem­plar agro-eco­log­i­cal farm­ing at an increas­ing­ly glob­al lev­el. Work­ing with farm­ers, the food indus­try, sci­en­tists, envi­ron­men­tal­ists, teach­ers, young peo­ple and con­sumers we are look­ing at new ways to deliv­er pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and pros­per­i­ty among our farm­ers, enrich the envi­ron­ment and engage young peo­ple and soci­ety in a valu­able and mean­ing­ful way. LEAF set up and has man­aged LEAF Open Farm Sun­day since it began in 2006 (LEAF is a reg­is­tered char­i­ty no: 1045781). 
Back to news

Sign up to our mailing list(s)

You are now subscribed!

You are signed up to the mailing list(s) you selected.

If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, every email we send contains a link at the bottom allowing you to unsubscribe with one click. Privacy Policy.

Already have an account?

If you are already registered on this site, or you have an existing myLEAF account, then please log in below.

To register or edit your Open Farm Sunday event you will need an account. Privacy Policy.

Log in

Forgot password?

Don't have an account?

Not to worry, you can create an account by clicking the button below. Privacy Policy.

Create Account

Create an account

Creating an account is quick and easy. Simply enter your details below and we'll send you a username and password by email straight away.

To register or edit your Open Farm Sunday event you will need an account.

Your new account details will log you into both Open Farm Sunday and myLEAF. Privacy Policy.

Back to login

Account creation complete

Please check your email for a message containing your new username and password.

You can use these details to log into both Open Farm Sunday and myLEAF. Privacy Policy.

Once logged in to myLEAF for the first time, it is advisable to change your password to something memorable via the 'My Profile' page.

Back to login

Forgot password

Back to login

Forgot password

Details of your account have been sent to your email address.