Martin & Arlene Fishwick, Low Bankside Farm, Lancashire
NFU members, Martin and Arlene farm across Cumbria and North Lancashire, and regularly welcome visitors to Low Bankside Farm for Open Farm Sunday. It’s a family run farm producing suckler calves and prime lambs, with a small herd of traditional and rare breed cattle used mainly for conservation grazing. Plus, they have a small dairy herd.
Medium sized event, Cumbria
The spotlight is on British Agriculture and with a lot of fake news and negativity towards our industry, Open Farm Sunday is an ideal opportunity to show the positives of how livestock production can benefit both wildlife habitat and the environment whilst at the same time producing food to some of the highest welfare standards.
We really need to have discussions with visitors about these key topics and get their opinions as well as saying ours. We have created a visual jigsaw which demonstrates how livestock farming, food production, healthy soil, manure, grass, climate and environment, wildlife habitat, local communities all have an important role to play in the countryside.
Talking with the public is well out of Martin’s comfort zone, but as he explains after hosting six Open Farm Sunday events it is getting easier each year:
“I used to talk with visitors at a level I thought they’d understand, but, without being disrespectful, you really do need to take conversations down to a very basic level as you’ll be surprised how little people know. If you’re not confident speaking with strangers, then invite others to help. This year we’re inviting a couple of vets – they won’t be going into the details of BVD, but they’ll be talking simply about animal welfare and why we need to vaccinate our livestock, making the link with Covid vaccinations so its relevant to visitors.”
Arlene who works in education uses her knowledge to engage with children providing them with the opportunities to take part in fun activities such as quizzes, guess which fleece is off which sheep, plus make use of the free resources provided by the sponsors.
We are proud to be professional farmers, proud of our livestock and the way it is produced, so why not take this opportunity to show case it to the great British public for them to make their own informed decisions.
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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