Fol­low­ing exten­sive research car­ried out this sum­mer to bet­ter under­stand the bar­ri­ers and chal­lenges to farm­ers host­ing a LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event, the out­comes have been used to shape a new pro­gramme of sup­port for farm­ers open­ing their gates to the pub­lic in June. 

A new infor­ma­tion pack, specif­i­cal­ly for farm­ers con­sid­er­ing open­ing for the first time, has been devel­oped. The pack is full of infor­ma­tion and ideas to give farm­ers a bet­ter under­stand­ing of how they can take part in LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, what is involved and answer fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions – before farm­ers take the deci­sion to reg­is­ter an event. 

Annabel Shack­le­ton, LEAF Open Farm Sun­day Man­ag­er explains: ​“The research high­light­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to help more farm­ers at the start of the deci­sion-mak­ing process. 95% of expe­ri­enced hosts found the Host Farmer Hand­book invalu­able and 91% val­ued the free resources. How­ev­er, amongst the farm­ers sur­veyed who had nev­er tak­en part, over half said they would con­sid­er host­ing a LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event but the major­i­ty (63%) were not aware of the range of tools and free resources avail­able from LEAF. So this new pack bridges that infor­ma­tion gap.” 

The pack has been devel­oped ready for the launch of LEAF Open Farm Sun­day 2019 on Wednes­day 7^th Novem­ber at the Farm Busi­ness Inno­va­tion Show at the NEC Birm­ing­ham (7^th & 8^th Novem­ber). Copies will be avail­able on the LEAF stand 2306 and the LEAF Open Farm Sun­day team will be there to answer ques­tions through­out the show. 

On Wednes­day 7^th at 15.30 in The­atre 6, LEAF Open Farm Sun­day Man­ag­er, Annabel Shack­le­ton and local farmer, Tere­sa Pick­worth, will be shar­ing their top tips on what makes a great LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event. 

Oth­er sup­port planned over the com­ing months to address farm­ers’ needs includes a region­al sup­port net­work to pro­vide help and advice to host farm­ers and share top tips and tricks, access to a tick­et­ing ser­vice to help farm­ers con­trol the num­ber of vis­i­tors to their event – a key con­cern for many new host farm­ers, plus access to a com­mu­ni­ca­tions toolk­it to pro­vide all the skills and know-how to engage with visitors 

Ms Shack­le­ton explains: 

“Just over 360 farm­ers opened their gates this year, 26% tak­ing part for the first time. We are keen to sup­port and encour­age more farm­ers to take part in 2019 to real­ly show­case the amaz­ing breadth and diver­si­ty of British agriculture. 

“Over the sum­mer, we have talked with farm­ers, lis­tened to their expe­ri­ences and exam­ined the per­ceived bar­ri­ers that may be stop­ping them from host­ing an event. Our new pro­gramme of sup­port is being devel­oped in response to their feed­back and is aimed at mak­ing it as easy as pos­si­ble for farm­ers to get involved. The main mes­sage that we will be con­vey­ing is that every event mat­ters. Farm­ers should not think that events have to attract hun­dreds of vis­i­tors. A farm walk for friends and neigh­bours is just as pow­er­ful in shin­ing a light on what farm­ing delivers. 

“Most of all, we want to inspire, moti­vate and ignite that spark that will encour­age more farm­ers to get involved in this spe­cial day – our farm­ing industry’s annu­al open day.” 

The new pack will also be avail­able to down­load from the LEAF Open Farm Sun­day web­site www​.farm​sun​day​.org after 7^thNovem­ber 2018.

If you are a farmer and wish to host a LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event then please reg­is­ter at www​.farm​sun​day​.org/​o​p​e​n​-​m​y​-farm from the 7^th Novem­ber 2018. 

To view the full press release click here.