The organ­is­ers of Open Farm Sun­day (OFS), LEAF (Link­ing Envi­ron­ment And Farm­ing) are encour­ag­ing more farm­ers to enjoy the mul­ti­ple ben­e­fits that come from show­cas­ing British farm­ing by host­ing an event in June this year.

Open Farm Sun­day Man­ag­er, Annabel Shack­le­ton, offers words of sup­port to any­one con­sid­er­ing host­ing an event on 9^th June 2024:

“There’s a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with an eager audi­ence — peo­ple are gen­uine­ly curi­ous to see behind the farm gate.

“What­ev­er the size of your event, you’ll be mak­ing a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to people’s under­stand­ing of farm­ing and food pro­duc­tion. By putting their sto­ries cen­tre stage, farm­ers are the true heroes of the day,” she says. 

LEAF research high­lights the val­ue to farm­ers of hav­ing pos­i­tive con­ver­sa­tions, feel­ing heard and appre­ci­at­ed by the pub­lic. For 88% of farm­ers the main rea­son they take part in OFS is to pro­mote a pos­i­tive image of the indus­try. After attend­ing an event, an over­whelm­ing 96% of vis­i­tors say they leave with a greater appre­ci­a­tion of the work farm­ers do. 

To sup­port the deliv­ery of events this year, prospec­tive hosts can join Open Farm Sunday’s online Zoom meet­ings run­ning until 22^nd May, look through the OFS Infor­ma­tion Pack on the web­site www​.farm​sun​day​.org, or con­tact the OFS team to talk through event ideas and get ques­tions answered: 02476413911, [email protected]

Farms across Britain, from Jer­sey to Shet­land, take part in Open Farm Sun­day and wel­come vis­i­tors onto their farm, open­ing their mind to the world of farm­ing. Here a selec­tion of farm­ers share their top tips and experience:

SCOT­LAND: Kasi McRed­die, Erne­spie Farm in Cas­tle Dou­glas: ​“An Open Farm Sun­day event doesn’t need to be a grand scale, it can be just as fan­tas­tic with 20 peo­ple com­ing from the local church group or school. It doesn’t even need to take place on a Sun­day, it could be as sim­ple as host­ing a farm walk one evening. The most impor­tant thing is mak­ing the event work for you. It’s some­thing you can real­ly build your con­fi­dence with and grow on your own terms over time.” 

SOUTH EAST: Emma Loder-Symonds, Non­ing­ton Farms in Kent: ​“There are a huge num­ber of ben­e­fits from host­ing. For me one of the best things has been attract­ing new entrants into the indus­try. Share your farm. Just go and do it and you’ll be amazed at what hap­pens as a result.” 

SOUTH EAST: John Whit­by, Row­ley Farm in Colne Val­ley: ​“I didn’t realise just how much fun host­ing Open Farm Sun­day would be. We get so much out of it. A small event for ten peo­ple is equal­ly valid. My advice is, give it a go, don’t be shy!”

EAST: Zoe Fletch­er from Buck­min­ster Farms, Nr Grantham, Lin­colnshire: ​“It’s real­ly impor­tant for farm­ers to share their sto­ries with the pub­lic. To squash pre­con­cep­tions about the indus­try, help peo­ple to become more con­scious con­sumers and the real­is­tic lifestyle that farm­ers lead.” 

MID­LANDS: Louis Phipps from Brag­bor­ough Hall, Northamp­ton­shire: ​“It’s real­ly impor­tant for farm­ers to share their sto­ries with the pub­lic. To show how much work goes into pro­duc­ing food, how much care we’re tak­ing of the envi­ron­ment, to recre­ate a con­nec­tion of where food comes from so peo­ple under­stand what they’re spend­ing their mon­ey on and what they’re putting into their bodies.”

WALES: Anna Sut­ton from Parc Grace Dieu in Mon­mouthshire: ​“I was a bit ner­vous about the rules we’d need to adhere to when open­ing our farm to the pub­lic, but the resources, mate­ri­als and sup­port from the Open Farm Sun­day team is exceptional.” 

SOUTH WEST: Lisa Allen from Elm Tree Farm near Bris­tol: ​“Peo­ple are gen­uine­ly inter­est­ed in farm­ing and are keen for their chil­dren to have con­nec­tions with nature and with where their food comes from. Agri­cul­ture as an indus­try can seem very closed and hard to under­stand for the pub­lic and is often only in the news when some­thing goes wrong or there is con­tro­ver­sy. OFS gives farm­ers the chance to share their work and their land with their com­mu­ni­ty, to bust some of the myths and cre­ate last­ing change in atti­tudes and beliefs among the public.”

NORTH EAST: David Peach of Rock House Farm Part­ner­ship in Bedale, York­shire; ​“We host­ed our first Open Farm Sun­day in 2017 for 40 peo­ple. Over the year’s its grown to 250 peo­ple. My advice is start small and get lots of help. It frees you up to min­gle and talk to peo­ple, it’s hard work but very rewarding.”

Cel­e­brat­ing its 18^th anniver­sary this sum­mer, Open Farm Sun­day is focused on encour­ag­ing more farm­ers to open their gates and put farm­ing cen­tre stage. Vis­it the OFS web­site to reg­is­ter and access an exten­sive range of free resources.

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