Anne Mair-Chapman - Kypie Farm, Northumberland
Anne Mair-Chapman, along with her family run a tenanted farm in Northumberland with 372 acres of mixed sheep and arable. In the foothills of the Cheviots. Anne comments, “the view are outstanding; it’s such a beautiful part of the country.” Her parents are still in the farmhouse, and as one of three, Anne has stayed on the farm whilst her two brothers pursued different careers off-farm.
Small community focussed event
Anne feels farmers should be doing more to change public perception and attitudes.
“As a farmer’s daughter, I have a profound love for British farming and all that it stands for. Living and working on our family farm in Northumberland, I’d like to see the public perception towards British agriculture move in a more positive direction, changing attitudes and understanding.
This is why we open the farm to the public each year for Open Farm Sunday (OFS). We also run school visits on the farm, and it makes me think that we need more farmers to be doing this to allow more people to come out on farm and find out first-hand about what agriculture means, and what is involved in producing food.”
“The first year we opened our gates, we invited the local rugby club and did a small farm walk. This gave us confidence to welcome more people, and now we run a slightly bigger event, with more on offer.”
Anne’s advice for anyone taking part in OFS, is to “make it fun, remember your audience and make it relatable. You can get serious messages across but don’t use jargon and, equally, don’t dumb it down. Make what you are saying and showing tangible, using examples that build links, such as “this pack of digestives came from this crop”. Visual aids work really well too as they make what you are saying stick.”
“Open Farm Sunday is an amazing opportunity to illustrate that, far from being a low skilled manual job as some may believe, farming is a dynamic and vital industry. There aren’t many jobs where you need to be a farmer, vet, agronomist, driver, accountant, engineer, mathematician, project manager and midwife!
Of course, everyone’s got something to say. Even if you start with the basics about how the farm came into the family and how it has changed over the years. However insignificant you think it is, it may inspire someone.”
Keen to take part and host an event this year? Register your event here.
Questions? Contact the Open Farm Sunday team: OpenFarmSunday@leaf.eco or phone 07912 463151
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