Activities

Just as every farm is unique, no one event will be the same. Every farm visit is unique with its own activities based around the farm’s own individual story. Activities during a farm visit may include a farm walk, nature trail, tractor & trailer rides, pond dipping, farmers markets, picnics and activities for children. It can be as simple or as big as you like.

LEAF have produced a great handbook packed with ideas of different farm visit activities like countryside pizzas, map sticks, nest building and many more. Some require very little preparation and few resources others are more complicated and need more time. These activities have been chosen and adapted so that you can host a farm visit that will engage your visitors and give them a fun experience to remember. To download the handbook, click here

GrowHow UK & LEAF have produced an information sheet and supporting handout to help farmers to tell the fertiliser story on their farm. You can order these through the resource pack.

Below are just some ideas and activities that have been a success in the past

Make the link - Help people make the link between your farm and their fridges. Always start off from plate to plough, rather than plough to plate, in other words start by making your story relevant to your audiences 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. Food activities include - talks from local chefs, food displays and tastings, picnics, bread baking, mini farmers market, butchery demonstrations, sausage making, harvesting vegetables and tasters, cookery demonstrations, cheese making, apple juice pressing, plant your own seed potatoes, hog roasts and BBQ’s.

Farm tours - Farm tours can come in all shapes and sizes! Here are a few - guided farm walks and nature trails, tractor and trailer rides, farm machinery ‘old and new’ displays, silage making demonstrations, cereal crop tours, meet the farm animals, farm maps showing routes with descriptions of features of interest.

Animal Activities - Everyone, young and old, loves animals. Here are some activities involving animals - sheep shearing, feed the chickens, hold a chick, milking demonstrations, new born piglets, feeding lambs, rare breeds, egg collecting, feeding calves, meet the vet, foot trimming, pig racing, milk the cow, guess the weight of the bull, name the calf, working dog demonstrations and pony rides.

Competitions, quizzes and entertainment - Not only are farms great classrooms, they also can provide some great games and competitions, such as - welly wanging, scarecrow making, tree ring counting, bale climbing frame, montages using farming magazines, farm animal face painting or mask making, bale maze, farm scavenger hunts, felt making, farm scene drawing and colouring competitions, quad biking, clay shooting, dog agility, falconry display, horseshoe quoits, apple bobbing and farm story telling/drama. To download the Frontier Wildlife Wordsearch click here

Going Wild - Make the link between farming and nature with one of the following activities - mini beast hunts, pond dipping, nest building, bird box making, nature table and hibernation chambers and hedge laying.

Team Up With Others - Think about teaming up with other non farming events in the local area to see if there are any opportunities for joining forces. You could even invite the local church congregation to have their service in one of your barns … followed by a farm walk of course! Rev. Dr. Gordon Gatward form the Arthur Rank Centre has kindly prepared some prayers for Open Farm Sunday, to download them click here