Hosted our first Open Farm Sunday in 2019 and last year welcomed 2,000 visitors

The Estate’s Home Farm prac­tices regen­er­a­tive farm­ing tech­niques to pro­duce high-qual­i­ty food whilst improv­ing soil health at the same time. 

Raby Estate’s first Open Farm Sun­day was in 2019, which was held at Raby Cas­tle; over time, the event has grown with more vis­i­tors want­i­ng to learn about British farm­ing. Last year, they had 2,000 vis­i­tors, and each year, it is growing. 

Con­nect­ing with the pub­lic is so impor­tant as it gives an oppor­tu­ni­ty to show the com­mu­ni­ty more about British Farm­ing and the coun­try­side, focus­ing on the field-to-fork aspect while show­cas­ing new tech­niques such as regen­er­a­tive farm­ing and encour­ag­ing future gen­er­a­tions to con­sid­er agri­cul­ture as a career.

Our favourite moments from the event are the smiles on the vis­i­tors’ faces when they are learn­ing some­thing new and encour­ag­ing our own farm­ing team to inter­act with the com­mu­ni­ty by shar­ing their knowl­edge and experience. 

At Raby Farm, there are lots of out­side sup­port through vol­un­teers and oth­er organ­i­sa­tions, includ­ing the NFU, Moor­land Group, Young Farm­ers, Moun­tain Res­cue and many more. As well as hav­ing local food stalls to show­case what they do in our farmer’s mar­ket. On the day, we have plen­ty of activ­i­ties and things to see through the edu­ca­tion­al zone, for­est school, and machin­ery demonstrations.

Top Tip: Embrace your event with the wider com­mu­ni­ty, and look around for all the amaz­ing organ­i­sa­tions you could work with.

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