We envisage each event to be unique - based around each farm’s individual story and it can be as simple, or as elaborate, as you like. However, the success of Open Farm Sunday is very much down to the host farmers.
A great place to start is to see the results and lessons learnt from the last Open Farm Sunday by clicking here or listen to some top tips from previous Open Farm Sunday hosts, click here.
To follow are some top tips, ideas, and guidance for making your Open Farm Sunday a safe, fun and worthwhile event.
Firstly, identify just one or two things that you would like your guests to go home having learnt or seen and try not to overload your guests with what you think they must know, but keep it simple and fun!
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.
You could also create a food and farming trail by ordering some footpath notice boards from LEAF so visitors can take their own tour. For more details, click here.
LEAF have developed a farmer's guide to hosting walks and talks offering advice and case studies covering a range of topics including school visits, health and safety, activities on the farm and getting the best from a group. For the Walks and Talks booklet, click here.
Plan a few fun activities and demonstrations with the crops, livestock and wildlife. Click here for a list of fun and interactive activities to share the food, farming and environment story with children and families.
Farm tours can be great fun, but let your insurers know what you are doing. We suggest you ask a friend to help you complete a risk assessment by checking the farm beforehand as they are more likely to spot any potential hazards. LEAF has developed a generic risk assessment, click here . For further guidance on health & safety, biosecurity, insurance and risk assessments, click here.
You are advised to read the guidance contained in the Health and Safety Executive publication 'Avoiding ill health at open farms - Advice to farmers (with teachers' supplement)' and if you plan tractor and trailer rides the guidance notes on ‘Passengers on farm trailers’
One of the key objectives of Open Farm Sunday is to help people learn about the links between food, farming and the environment. When talking with your guests always start by making it relavant to your audeinces lives, rather than starting off by talking about farming.
If you process your own food, great have it out on display. If not, go and buy some that could have been produced on your farm to help visitors make the link between your farm and their fridges. Why not organise a mini farmers market with produce visitors can taste and buy. You could even invite everyone to bring their own picnic and award a prize for the picnic that tells the best story about food and farming in the area!
To spread the workload and demonstrate the breadth of knowledge, skills and expertise in farming - team up with your farming neighbours, agronomist, vet, conservation advisor and sponsors. You could ask them to help publicise the event, or invite them to say a few words on the farm tour to give you some breathing space! Don’t forget to give a handful of Open Farm Sunday flyers to every rep that comes into your farm yard!
We don’t envisage an entry fee for Open Farm Sunday events. However, if you have a cause that is close to your heart i.e. local school, hospital, church or even LEAF this would be a great opportunity for you to raise valuable funds either by asking for donations or organising a fun competition such as welly throwing! This can encourage others to help with publicity, and gives the event another edge that encourages visitors and the local paper might be more prone to give it coverage.
If you like, you can order a LEAF donation box and some Friend of LEAF flyers when you register your event. LEAF member or not, we need your help to raise money to support us to support YOU. We work in just about every area which is important to food, farming, the environment and of course, community initiatives like Open Farm Sunday. Thank you.
Think about who might be coming, what will interest them, avoid jargon and practise answers to those tricky questions we all fear! Order a Speak Out 'tool kit' CD Rom when you register to help you prepare for speaking to different audiences, provide advice on handling tricky questions and give you the chance to eavesdrop on farmers getting it right – and wrong! There are exercises to improve your choice of words and phrases and plenty of ideas of how to make speaking enjoyable and useful to you and, importantly, your listeners!
Ask your visitors for feedback both in terms of your own performance but also what they learnt and most enjoyed. For a sample visitor questionnaire for you to use or adapt, click here.
And finally … don’t forget to take lots of photos of your event and send them to Justine Hards at LEAF (justine.hards@leafuk.org) If you have a digital camera please make sure the resolution setting is high! And if the pictures on the day include children, remember to ask the parents if they are alright with the photos being used for publicity purposes.