Didcot Farm, Dumbleton
Tanya Robbins, along with husband Tom run a herd of 30 beef suckler cows, flock of 300 mule and 300 easy care ewes, plus 300 acres of arable land near the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border. With a real passion for promoting the agricultural industry, Tanya signed up to take part in her first Open Farm Sunday in 2017 and is now a strong advocate for the annual event. Here are her reasons for getting involved
Medium sized, ticketed event based in the Worcestershire / Gloucestershire border.
Promoting British Farming
I am proud of what we do on our farm particularly with our livestock. We are part of the Red Tractor Farm Assurance scheme and have several footpaths that cross over our land. Members of the public use these regularly, see our stock and some of the work we do, but we are often too busy to stop and engage with them. Signing up for Open Farm Sunday has allowed us to give back to the community, welcoming them onto our farm, free of charge, for a fun family day out and to educate them and their children about agriculture and food production.
The future of our industry
Open Farm Sunday has also given us the chance to highlight and promote the varied career opportunities in the sector, which is crucial now more than ever due to the employment challenges we are seeing. Encouraging young children to visit the farm, to ignite their interest in farming and showcase different careers within the sector, can only have a positive knock-on effect for the future of British agriculture.
Tickets and technology
Since hosting our first event we have evolved and adapted. Last year, a real game changer for us was the use of the online ticketing system, recommended by Open Farm Sunday. I’m not the most tech savvy but the help and guidance provided by TryBooking was excellent and the process was straight forward, allowing us to monitor and limit the number of people attending. With the uncertainty around Covid-19 in 2021, it gave me piece of mind and helped manage the flow of visitors, with 50 tickets per hour issued.
A little help
Without the support from family and friends, hosting Open Farm Sunday wouldn’t be possible. It’s a real team effort and each person plays their own role in making the day interesting and informative for visitors, from my mother’s fossil stand, where she displays various items found on the farm and explains the background behind them, to our farm assurance standards where we explain the importance of traceability.
Growing recognition
Five years on from our first Open Farm Sunday event, we have regular faces returning and often previous visitors will enquire to find out if an event will be happening again. Not only have we seen the public become inquisitive, but the local farming community have also recognised our efforts and come along to show their support. For us this is just as important, so they can see what benefit opening your farm gates can have on the industry, and it may even give them the confidence to get involved and open their own farm.
Listen to Tanya chatting about her event on the OFS Podcast, and others experiences of hosting OFS here!
Keen to take part and host an event this year? Register your event here.
Questions? Contact the Open Farm Sunday team: [email protected] or phone 07912 463151
Top tips
Help on the day: Don’t have doubts – just do it! Don’t turn down help and support from family, friends, local businesses and the community. More hands make light work. Have confidence around health & safety. Be prepared and make sure you have all the health & safety polices in place.
Resources: Smart signage. The LEAF Open Farm Sunday website is the go-to platform for helping to plan and prepare for an event. You can download a variety of signs to use on the farm from ‘do not enter’ to ‘disabled parking’, and even Wallace and Gromit style signs for handwashing. Don’t create more work for yourself, utilise the resources that are there.
Health & Safety: The LEAF Open Farm Sunday website is fantastic and has a vast number of complimentary templates including a really useful risk assessment, that you can use to make the process stress free. As soon as you have registered you will also receive a useful handbook that provides guidance.
Sign up to our mailing list(s)
You are now subscribed!
You are signed up to the mailing list(s) you selected.
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, every email we send contains a link at the bottom allowing you to unsubscribe with one click. Privacy Policy.