LOFS Top Tips and Training! 

This year, we’re tak­ing things up a notch in the sup­port we’re offer­ing our LEAF Open Farm Sun­day host farm­ers! We’ve got three online top tips meet­ings for you to attend, offer­ing the chance to meet some of the new LOFS ambas­sadors, along­side some excit­ing train­ing videos in the pipeline! 

Top Tips train­ing meetings 

The three online farmer meet­ings are open to any­one inter­est­ed in tak­ing part in LEAF Open Farm Sun­day in June, or any expe­ri­enced hosts look­ing for new ideas. 

Dur­ing the short one-hour Zoom call, farm­ers will meet some of the new LOFS ambas­sadors, lis­ten to their top tips, answer ques­tions, shares ideas and speak to oth­er hosts. 

The​“LEAF Open Farm Sun­day Top Tips” ses­sions will take place at the fol­low­ing times. Please click on the dates to register! 

Mon­day 10^th May, 19:30

Wednes­day 12^th May, 12:30

Fri­day 14^th May, 08:00

Top tips from our LOFS Ambas­sadors:

Rebec­ca Dawes — LOFS Ambas­sador, Scotland 

“Nev­er be afraid to ask for help, it is such a reward­ing day for every­one involved. Your vet, local feed mer­chant, machin­ery deal­er, agron­o­mist or farm advi­sor could give a small talk about what they do and maybe bring a few props like ani­mal feed or wheat seed. A ​“Farmer Ques­tion Time” always goes down well at our event, where local farm­ers each vol­un­teer to do a 15-minute slot to answer questions.”

Anne Mair-Chap­man — LOFS Ambas­sador, North East 

“Make your event fun, friend­ly and for­get the farm­ing jar­gon! After the year we’ve all had, your event needs to feel like a bit of light relief in the fresh air. An infor­mal intro­duc­tion as peo­ple arrive is some­times all it takes to get the ques­tions going — remem­ber your audi­ence and think of oth­er ways to describe the work you do, farm­ing terms are not always self-explanatory!”

Rona Amiss — LOFS Ambas­sador, South West 

“Get lots of help from neigh­bours, friends and any­one else you can think of! It makes it much more fun and every­one enjoys themselves.”

Helen Chap­pell — LOFS Ambas­sador, North West 

“This is the year to host! The pub­lic are want­i­ng to con­nect with farms and the envi­ron­ment — not just to learn about the farm­ing life but also for the health and well­be­ing ben­e­fits. The sup­port and guid­ance is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and the ambas­sadors are here to help. The gen­er­al pub­lic are just as appre­hen­sive as the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty, but they too are deter­mined to embrace the new nor­mal, Covid safe way of doing things.”

Andy Guy — LOFS Ambas­sador, Midlands

“Plan ahead
The most suc­cess­ful events are those where the hosts have planned for every even­tu­al­i­ty. Think about car park­ing, helpers and vol­un­teers, health and safe­ty, activ­i­ties for kids and fam­i­lies, pro­mo­tion and what you can do if it rains. If its all sort­ed before the big day you will have a stress-free event.

On the day.
Brief your helpers in advance so every­one knows what they are doing and what your vis­i­tors can see and do. Once the first vis­i­tors start to arrive all you need to do is acti­vate your plan and enjoy the day! If you’ve planned well and have con­tin­gen­cies for things like weath­er it should all go smoothly.

After the event.
Thank your helpers, tidy up and crack open a beer/​cup of tea and relax. Share mem­o­ries of the day with your helpers, update your Face­book page with some pho­tos and start think­ing about LOFS 2022.”

If you can’t wait til 10^th May and your would like to talk through your LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event ideas now, get in touch with a LOFS ambas­sador today — you can find the LOFS team’s con­tact details here.