Open Farm Sunday

Open Farm Sunday is back for its third successive year taking place on Sunday 1st June 2008 and already over 100 farms have registered to open their gates and host a farm open day. The campaign organised by Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) offers a fantastic opportunity for everyone, young and old, to enjoy the living, vibrant countryside - with a new theme for 2008 ‘Feed Your Senses’. The 2008 event follows the success of Open Farm Sunday 2007, where over 400 farms and 7000 farmers and helps across the country welcoming 150,000 members of the public on to their farms.

Resource packs and publicity material

To help you organise an event LEAF will provide you with a resource pack to include – posters, flyers, postcards, roadside notice boards, arrows, suggested activities, H&S guidance, polo shirts and lots more! These packs will be sent out from the middle of March. To order a pack please register your event on www.farmsunday.org or if you would like to know more first, please telephone LEAF on 02476 413911.

Example Open Farm Sunday events

Each event will be unique with its own activities and may include - a farm walk, nature trail, tractor & trailer rides, pond dipping, mini farmers market, picnics and activities for children. To help you decide on your event format you need to decide how many visitors you would like. Here are a few different event types –

• The ‘closed group’ event – A small event with for a known group of people. Contact the local vicar or priest, suggest instead of the Sunday church service being held in the church, it is held in one of your barns, followed by short farm walk (1 hour) and a ‘bring your own’ picnic lunch. This could also be done for any other local interest group like the Ramblers, CPRE, RSPB, etc.

• The ‘village’ event – A guided farm walk (2 hours max) either before of after Sunday lunch for your neighbours. Use the Open Farm Sunday postcards and A5 flyers in the resource pack to invite your friends, family and neighbours by putting one through each household letter box. Personalise the Open Farm Sunday A4 posters and put them up in the village shop etc.

• The ‘open’ event - A large event starting at 11am with hourly farm guided tours running until 3pm. Other activities may include a nature trail, tractor & trailer rides, pond dipping, mini farmers market, picnics and activities for children. You will need to involve as many people to help you as possible.

Other ways to get involved in Open Farm Sunday

For farm shops, farmers markets, retailers, agricultural colleges or organisations, Open Farm Sunday offers a great opportunity to connect with consumers. It is easy to get involved with Open Farm Sunday in a variety of different ways.

• Join forces with your local farm to promote Open Farm Sunday

• Display and distribute Open Farm Sunday postcards, posters, flyers and roadside baords

• Put a link on your website to www.farmsunday.org

• Help out at your local farm on the day

Farmer workshops:

If you are planning to get involved in Open Farm Sunday on the 1st June 2008, whether you've opened up before or are just thinking about it, then come along to one of our Open Farm Sunday workshops. You'll be able to meet with other farmers who've done it before and learn from their experiences, as well as get some great ideas on a whole range of topics including - Feedback and lessons learnt from 2007; Generating interest and publicity; Avoiding jargon and handling tricky questions; Activities to make your event memorable; Making it safe … and much more. Each workshop will begin and 2pm and finish at 4.30pm at the following venues:

• 5th March - Cinderbarrow Farm, Levens (Coates), Kendal, Cumbria

• 6th March - Greenwell Farm, Towlaw, Bishop Auckland, County Durham

• 12th March - Hall Farm, Stainton-Le-Vale, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire

• 13th March - Whirlow Hall Farm, Whirlow Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

• 18th March - JSR Farms, Southburn, Driffield, East Yorkshire

• 19th March - Claremont Farm, Clatterbridge, Wirral, Merseyside

• 20th March - Longlands, Whitbourne, Herefordshire

• 31st March - The Allerton Project, Loddington, East Norton, Leicestershire

• 2nd April - Walk Farm, Witham Friary, Frome, Somerset

• 3rd April - Town Barton, Sandford, Crediton, Devon

• 7th April - Woottons Cottage Farm, Croxden, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire

• 10th April - Crichton Royal Farm, Glencaple Road, Dumfries

• 11th April - Tarrylaw, Balbeggie, Perth

• 14th April - Press Mains, Coldingham, Berwickshire

• 16th April - Hampden Bottom Farm, Rignall Road, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire

• 17th April - Lower Farm, Troston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

• 22nd April - Gelli Aur College Farm, Gelli Aur, Carmarthen

• 23rd April - Hafod y Llan, Nant Gwynant, Beddgelert, Gwynedd

• 25th April - Chaites Farm, Bolney, Haywards Heath, West Sussex

• 1st May - Bradfords Farm, Benham Estate Office, Newbury, Berkshire

To book a place please telephone LEAF on 02476 413911 or email carol.cartwright@leafuk.org

If you would like to know more, check www.farmsunday.org