The num­ber of farm­ers already com­mit­ted to host­ing LEAF Open Farm Sun­day events is up 10% on this time last year. Three hun­dred farms from Jer­sey to Shet­land are set to open their gates on the 9^th June to give the pub­lic a first-hand insight into farm­ing. The nation­al organ­is­ers, LEAF (Link­ing Envi­ron­ment And Farm­ing) are encour­ag­ing more farm­ers to seize this oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with the con­sumer and build loy­al­ty and sup­port for the British farm­ing industry.

“We are call­ing on more farm­ers across Eng­land, Scot­land and Wales, of every size and every sec­tor, to fill the gaps across the coun­try, open their farm and to share their sto­ry,” said LEAF Open Farm Sun­day Man­ag­er, Annabel Shack­le­ton. ​“We need more farms to respond to the public’s com­pelling appetite to vis­it a farm and learn more about where their food comes from and how it is pro­duced. It’s the per­fect time for farm­ers to strength­en the con­nec­tion with their cus­tomers when the indus­try is being chal­lenged by pol­i­cy changes, dietary trends and, poten­tial­ly, of cheap for­eign imports.”

Of the 362 farms which host­ed a LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event last year, 26% did so for the first time — the high­est num­ber to date. These farms encom­passed all types of farm enter­prise — arable, live­stock and dairy through to horticulture.

“Even at this stage there is still time to organ­ise a small event such as a farm walk for a few peo­ple” Mrs Shack­le­ton con­tin­ued, ​“This can be out in the fields where you can keep prepa­ra­tion to a min­i­mum – a great start­ing point if you are host­ing for the first time. You decide what size of event to run, what vis­i­tors see, for how long and can man­age vis­i­tor num­bers through our free online tick­et­ing ser­vice. Every event mat­ters and every con­ver­sa­tion helps bridge that gap between pro­duc­ers and consumers.”

As well as thank­ing the farm­ers tak­ing part this year, Mrs Shack­le­ton praised the com­mit­ment of the spon­sors of LEAF Open Farm Sun­day. The 2019 prin­ci­pal spon­sors are Arla Foods, Asda, BASF plc, Co-op, Defra, Farm­ers Week­ly, Fron­tier Agri­cul­ture, John Deere Lim­it­ed, LEAF Mar­que, Marks and Spencer, NFU, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Wait­rose and the Agri­cul­ture and Hor­ti­cul­ture Devel­op­ment Board (AHDB).

In addi­tion to finan­cial sup­port, spon­sors pro­duce a range of free mate­ri­als and give­aways to inspire and engage vis­i­tors about farm­ing and all it deliv­ers. Many spon­sors also have vol­un­teers at the events.

Rob Glad­win, Head of Tech­ni­cal Man­age­ment, Agri­cul­tur­al Solu­tions, North­ern Europe for BASF, a spon­sor for many years, said:

“Spon­sor­ing LEAF Open Farm Sun­day gives us an oppor­tu­ni­ty to sup­port an ini­tia­tive we whole-heart­ed­ly believe in. For farm­ers, pre­serv­ing the land is com­mon sense; for their busi­ness, for their com­mu­ni­ties and for the next gen­er­a­tion. We work hand in hand with grow­ers, ensur­ing we share our knowl­edge and solu­tions to help them to con­tin­ue to farm sus­tain­ably and prof­itably. LEAF Open Farm Sun­day is a unique event and oppor­tu­ni­ty to show­case the efforts of farm­ers, edu­cat­ing the pub­lic on the hard work and pas­sion that goes into putting food on UK tables.”

The com­bined pos­i­tive impact of farms across the UK open­ing for this annu­al event is huge. In a vis­i­tor sur­vey car­ried out in 2018, 92% said they had a greater appre­ci­a­tion of the work that farm­ers do after vis­it­ing a farm; 86% said they felt more con­nect­ed to the farm­ers who pro­duced their food, and 78% report­ed they were now more proac­tive­ly look­ing to buy British food.

Chris Wilt­shire, Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er of John Deere, a prin­ci­pal spon­sor, said:

“LEAF Open Farm Sun­day pro­vides an ide­al oppor­tu­ni­ty, not only to show a wider pub­lic audi­ence how advanced farm­ing tech­nolo­gies are being applied to the ben­e­fit of farm­ing, effi­cient food pro­duc­tion and sound envi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment, includ­ing the reduc­tion of harm­ful emis­sions, but also to encour­age young peo­ple to con­sid­er a chal­leng­ing and worth­while career in farm­ing and agri­cul­tur­al engi­neer­ing.”

Farm­ers inter­est­ed in open­ing for LEAF Open Farm Sun­day on 9^th June 2019 can find out more and reg­is­ter at www​.farm​sun​day​.org. Once reg­is­tered, farm­ers receive a hand­book and free resources.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact Susan­nah at Jane Craigie Mar­ket­ing susannah@​janecraigie.​com or 07841 194 897.

Full press release click here.