This option­al activ­i­ty, is one of a num­ber of ideas avail­able to LEAF Open Farm Sun­day (LOFS) host farm­ers to talk about this year’s theme ​“health”. The focus is on the health of soil, crops, live­stock and bio­di­ver­si­ty through to food, peo­ple and community. 

Farm­ers want­i­ng to get involved need to plant any 100% cot­ton items before East­er Sun­day (17^th April), and then dig them up on or just before LOFS on Sun­day 12^th June 2022. Over the next 60 days or more, at 8” deep, the life­forms in the soil will begin eat­ing the cel­lu­lose sug­ar, from which cot­ton is made, and start decom­pos­ing the organ­ic material. 

Ster­ile, life­less soil will have lit­tle impact on the cot­ton, where­as organ­i­cal­ly thriv­ing soil will result in very lit­tle to dig up, demon­strat­ing a real­ly healthy soil. 

Annabel Shack­le­ton, LOFS man­ag­er explained:

“All farm­ers, grow­ers and crofters who take part in LEAF Open Farm Sun­day have access to a wide range of free resources and activ­i­ty ideas, aimed at spark­ing con­ver­sa­tions and demon­strat­ing to vis­i­tors the range of skills and work that farm­ers do. ​‘Plant Your Pants’, is a fun way for farm­ers to talk about soil man­age­ment, and the role it plays in cli­mate health – from seques­ter­ing car­bon, flood pre­ven­tion and sup­port­ing biodiversity.” 

The idea is not a new one, with farm­ers and school chil­dren in USA, Aus­tralia, New Zealand and more recent­ly Switzer­land, mon­i­tor­ing soil micro­bial activ­i­ty by bury­ing cot­ton pants! 

LEAF Demon­stra­tion Farmer and AHDB Strate­gic Mon­i­tor Farmer Bri­an Bark­er, brought the con­cept to the UK after vis­it­ing Cana­da as part of his Nuffield Schol­ar­ship, and has shared the results of his own ​‘plant your plants’ exper­i­ments on his social media chan­nel @the_barker_boys.

Annabel added, ​“Soil is always a pop­u­lar dis­cus­sion top­ic with vis­i­tors on LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, whether its dig­ging for worms or look­ing at root struc­tures in a soil pit. This plant your pants activ­i­ty I’m sure will put a smile on everyone’s faces on the day! We are encour­ag­ing farm­ers to take pho­tographs before and after they plant items to demon­strate the dif­fer­ence to vis­i­tors. We would love to see every­one who gets involved to write #LOFS22 on the cot­ton, and then upload a pho­to and post it on social media!”

For farm­ers inspired by this activ­i­ty and want­i­ng to take part in LOFS, it is free to reg­is­ter and farm­ers do not need to be a mem­ber of LEAF. Every farmer decides the type of event they want to host. A sim­ple farm walk for an hour or so is a great way to start. A free online tick­et­ing ser­vice is avail­able to man­age vis­i­tor num­bers, and a series of Zoom meet­ings are sched­uled to share top tips and answer farm­ers’ questions. 

The next Zoom meet­ing, on Thurs­day 7^th April at 7pm will touch on ​‘plant your pants’ and oth­er activ­i­ties and resources avail­able to help farm­ers share their sto­ry. To find out more and to reg­is­ter to take part in LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, vis­it www​.farm​sun​day​.org.

The full press release can be found here.