A different type of Leaf Open Farm Sunday (LOFS) event is emerging in 2021, with greater emphasis on activities such as farm walks, cereal safaris and self-guided trails.
The 15th ‘industry open day', launched in 2006 by Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF), to bridge the widening gap between farming and consumers, will be held on the later than usual date of June 27.
With public appreciation of local communities, food security, green spaces and the environment in sharp focus, the organisers of LOFS are calling on more farmers across the country to ‘Take 30' and welcome small groups of 30 or so people onto their farms to build wider public understanding and trust in British farming and food.
"We are urging farmers across the country to host a short farm walk and share their farming story this June," says LOFS manager Annabel Shackleton.
Jon Myhill, an arable consultant and LOFS Ambassador offers support, advice and ideas to farmers considering getting involved.
He says: "Visitors love big machinery and technology and grasping the scale, cost and how much knowledge goes into producing a high yielding, quality product for market. There's a genuine keenness to understand farming. People are often surprised by the range of crops, and that they are not just for Weetabix, but part of a matrix of vegetable oil, feed, food, electricity, biofuels and more. Every farm has a story, and it's just about telling your story in a fun and interactive way, making it relevant and relating it back to what visitors are seeing in their everyday lives."
A cereal safari - a walk and talk through the crops - will be the central event for one arable farmer. Another has teamed up with the local supermarket to devise a shopping trolley game working back from shelf to seed; children take an item from the trolley and have to run with it to the right crop bucket. Guessing the number of Maltesers produced in a square metre of barley, digging for worms and letting visitors sit in a tractor cab are also popular activities.
Some farmers are creating a marked trail around the farm, with informative posters ending at a picnic field or the pub. The LOFS handbook, which all farmers receive when they register their event, is packed with more ideas.
More information
To take part on June 27, 2021, find out more and register your event free of charge visit www.farmsunday.org
