FE College, Beef, Sheep and Arable

Ignit­ing inter­est in agriculture

We want­ed to hold an event that was entire­ly focused on agri­cul­ture and to pro­mote the excit­ing career oppor­tu­ni­ties in the sec­tor. Get­ting involved in a well-estab­lished nation­al ini­tia­tive like Open Farm Sun­day we felt would be a good way to improve local aware­ness of the col­lege and raise under­stand­ing of agri­cul­ture in gen­er­al. We also liked the idea of get­ting much younger chil­dren through our gates to ignite their inter­est in farming!

A qual­i­ty experience

Giv­ing vis­i­tors a pro­fes­sion­al, qual­i­ty and safe expe­ri­ence was our main focus. A key part of this was con­trol­ling vis­i­tor num­bers so, using Eventbrite online tick­et­ing ser­vice, we allo­cat­ed spaces to the first 45 fam­i­lies to book on. This helped us ensure we had ade­quate staff, park­ing facil­i­ties and enough refresh­ments. Anoth­er essen­tial part of our plan­ning was com­plet­ing the risk assess­ments on all activ­i­ties, pay­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to poten­tial bio­haz­ards for preg­nant women as sheep would be present. We cor­doned off the mech­a­nised areas from the per­son­nel areas and planned the trac­tor and trail­er route, so it did not cross the pedes­tri­an or park­ing areas. We were also very strict with enforce­ment! Hand­wash­ing facil­i­ties were pro­vid­ed all over the event and all vis­i­tors came through one entry point for foot dip­ping and handwashing.

Ear­ly plan­ning pays off

The deci­sion to open up the farm wasn’t tak­en light­ly. Due to the high-risk nature of the farm, we had some health and safe­ty con­cerns, par­tic­u­lar­ly hav­ing much younger vis­i­tors onsite. We were able to draw on the expe­ri­ence and exper­tise of our large staff and set up a Project Group at the out­set which includ­ed our Estates Man­ag­er, Farm Man­ag­er, Mar­ket­ing Exec­u­tive and aca­d­e­m­ic staff. In the end, we had a team of twelve which was quite an invest­ment of time and resources, but it cer­tain­ly paid off. 

A com­mu­ni­ty event

We real­ly want­ed to open up the world of farm­ing to the whole com­mu­ni­ty and involve peo­ple of all ages. All vis­i­tors went on the trac­tor and trail­er ride and we ran a crop iden­ti­fi­ca­tion quiz linked to the tour. Our sheep flock were anoth­er big attrac­tion and we put on sheep shear­ing demon­stra­tions and vis­i­tors were able to have a go at feed­ing them. Var­i­ous craft activ­i­ties were avail­able for younger chil­dren which kept them busy and engaged and infor­ma­tion boards locat­ed around the site gave more in-depth infor­ma­tion about our var­i­ous enter­pris­es. We also had demon­stra­tions from the spe­cial­ist ani­mal evac­u­a­tion team from Northamp­ton­shire Fire Ser­vice which proved to be a big hit with vis­i­tors. Light refresh­ments were also avail­able free of charge for vis­i­tors to dip into as they want­ed – all great­ly appreciated! 

Enthu­si­asm for agriculture

The com­ments from vis­i­tors both dur­ing the day and after it have been amaz­ing. Meet­ing new peo­ple and see­ing their enthu­si­asm and inter­est for agri­cul­ture and the oppor­tu­ni­ties in the indus­try has been extreme­ly reward­ing. Plan­ning is the key to run­ning a suc­cess­ful Open Farm Sun­day event – the dev­il real­ly is in the detail! Always bear the cus­tomer in mind and the qual­i­ty of the expe­ri­ence you offer. After that, things like health and safe­ty become very easy to man­age. Above all, take time to enjoy it!