The farm, part of Daw­nay Estates, was one of over 360 farms across the UK, open­ing their gates to the pub­lic for the farm­ing industry’s annu­al open day, run by sus­tain­able farm­ing char­i­ty LEAF (Link­ing Envi­ron­ment And Farming).

The Min­ster was met by Robert Sword, Daw­nay Estate Direc­tor and LEAF Chair­man, Philip Wynn. His tour of the farm includ­ed see­ing sheep shear­ing, dry stone walling demon­stra­tions, sheep­dog han­dling and moor­land man­age­ment prac­tices. This is the third LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event at Stonebeck Gate Farm, which was organ­ised in con­junc­tion with the North York Moors Nation­al Park.

Farm­ing Min­is­ter Robert Good­will said:

“Open Farm Sun­day is a fan­tas­tic ini­tia­tive, get­ting more peo­ple out into the coun­try­side to see where our food comes from and meet the farm­ers who pro­duce it. 

“There are so many diverse British farm­ing busi­ness­es and I hope that every­one who vis­it­ed a farm today learned some­thing new about what farm­ing deliv­ers and why it is so impor­tant – pro­duc­ing the food we eat, pro­tect­ing wildlife and pro­vid­ing access to the beau­ti­ful countryside.

“I would like to thank every farmer who par­tic­i­pat­ed today, tak­ing the time to wel­come the pub­lic onto their farms.”

Car­o­line Drum­mond, LEAF Chief Exec­u­tive, added:

“We were delight­ed to wel­come Mr Good­will to Stonebeck Gate Farm and thank the Daw­nay Estate for host­ing his vis­it. LEAF Open Farm Sun­day is a spe­cial day in the farm­ing cal­en­dar. A day of cel­e­bra­tion, unit­ing the whole indus­try to show­case the very best of British Farming. 

“By com­ing togeth­er, we are help­ing to increase the public’s under­stand­ing of farm­ing, build trust and raise aware­ness of the crit­i­cal role farm­ers play, not just as food pro­duc­ers but as providers of healthy soil, clean water, bet­ter air qual­i­ty, improved bio­di­ver­si­ty, high ani­mal wel­fare stan­dards, pub­lic access as well as health and well­be­ing. As we look to future changes in sup­port pay­ments, it is more impor­tant than ever for farm­ers to com­mu­ni­cate and con­nect with the pub­lic. LEAF Open Farm Sun­day pro­vides a fan­tas­tic plat­form for the indus­try to stand togeth­er and proud­ly demon­strate all that our pro­duc­tive, prof­itable and pro­gres­sive food and farm­ing sec­tor delivers.”

“Our thanks to all the farm­ers and helpers who took part and to the thou­sands of vis­i­tors who got out onto farm to sup­port them.” 

Next year’s LEAF Open Farm Sun­day will take place on the 7^th June 2020. For up-to-date cam­paign infor­ma­tion, like us on Face­book http://​www​.face​book​.com/​L​E​A​F​o​p​e​n​f​a​r​m​s​unday, or fol­low us on Twit­ter @OpenFarmSunday.

Click here to view the full press release.