Every event was unique, show­cas­ing their own farm­ing sto­ry from arable, hor­ti­cul­ture and live­stock to agro-forestry and fish­eries, but all unit­ed with the same aim — to demon­strate the industry’s com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, bio­di­ver­si­ty, cli­mate mit­i­ga­tion, deliv­er­ing nutri­tious food and a well-man­aged coun­try­side. This year the over­ar­ch­ing theme of ​‘health’ allowed scope for farm­ers to play to their strengths and cre­ate inno­v­a­tive activ­i­ties and displays. 

Vis­it­ing a work­ing farm pro­vides a bril­liant oppor­tu­ni­ty for peo­ple to talk direct­ly with the farm­ers that pro­duce their food, and real­ly grasp what is involved in sus­tain­able food pro­duc­tion, a top­ic that is at the fore­front of many house­holds. Aside from learn­ing about the impor­tance of healthy crops and live­stock, vis­i­tors had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cov­er the impor­tance of soil and water health, bio­di­ver­si­ty and habi­tat man­age­ment and so much more.

Vis­i­tors includ­ed two Defra Min­is­ters, Lord Beny­on who vis­it­ed Row Farm in Berk­shire and Farm­ing Min­is­ter Vic­to­ria Prentis who vis­it­ed D’Oyley’s Farm, near Oxford, a regen­er­a­tive fam­i­ly farm man­aged by the White fam­i­ly for three gen­er­a­tions. Min­is­ter Pren­tis, said: ​“It was a plea­sure to vis­it D’Oyley’s Farm to cel­e­brate LEAF’s Open Farm Sun­day. So many farm­ers across the coun­try are will­ing to wel­come vis­i­tors to their farms and show­case the work that they do and it’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty not to miss.”

“British farm­ers are doing a tremen­dous job in deliv­er­ing high-qual­i­ty pro­duce that is both sus­tain­able and nutri­tious, and it is won­der­ful to see their com­mit­ment to inspir­ing the younger gen­er­a­tion to enter the industry.”

Annabel Shack­le­ton, LEAF Open Farm Sun­day man­ag­er said: ​“With the public’s grow­ing con­scious­ness around the envi­ron­ment and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, farming’s annu­al open day is more impor­tant than ever, to build sup­port for British farm­ing and food and show­case every­thing farm­ing deliv­ers. It also high­lights the diverse career oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able for future gen­er­a­tions with­in the agri­cul­tur­al sector.”

The feed­back from indus­try and vis­i­tors has been huge­ly pos­i­tive. Ms Shack­le­ton con­grat­u­lat­ed all involved: ​“We’d like to say a big thank you to every­one who made LEAF Open Farm Sun­day 2022 anoth­er huge suc­cess, par­tic­u­lar­ly all the host farm­ers, vol­un­teers and our spon­sors.”

LEAF Open Farm Sun­day is a true col­lab­o­ra­tion work­ing with our prin­ci­pal spon­sors: AHDB, Arla Foods, Asda, BASF, Co-op, Defra, Farm­ers Week­ly, Fron­tier Agri­cul­ture, John Deere, LEAF Mar­que, 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.”

The day was also a fit­ting trib­ute to Car­o­line Drum­mond MBE, the dri­ving force behind LOFS, who died last month. Ms Shack­le­ton said: ​“See­ing hun­dreds of fam­i­lies at events was a fit­ting trib­ute to Car­o­line Drum­mond, who always loved to see the pub­lic on farm learn­ing about this indus­try we’re all so pas­sion­ate about. The sun­shine brought Caroline’s warmth to so many as host farm­ers remem­bered her. At the end of the day, reg­u­lar LOFS hosts, FarmE­co in Not­ting­hamshire, paid trib­ute to ​‘CD’ and sang along to a band play­ing Sweet Car­o­line.”

Ms Shack­le­ton added: ​“There is such inter­est in where our food comes from and now more than ever a desire to bet­ter under­stand all that our farm­ers do. By tak­ing part in LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, farm­ers can con­tin­ue to sup­port the pub­lic to be more con­scious con­sumers and encour­age fur­ther sup­port for British food and farm­ing. After yesterday’s tremen­dous suc­cess we ask all of our cur­rent and future host farm­ers to put next year’s date in their diary now!”

Next year’s LEAF Open Farm Sun­day will take place on Sun­day 11^th June 2023.

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, @LEAF_Farming and @AnnabelOFS.

Read the full press release here.