There is no doubt that LEAF Open Farm Sun­day will look slight­ly dif­fer­ent this year. The trend is for small­er events, with activ­i­ties where vis­i­tors can man­age their own learn­ing, such as self-guid­ed farm walks. Every farmer that takes part will still have full auton­o­my to decide on the type of event they would like to offer, for how long and for how many people.

There is also a greater empha­sis on using a free tick­et­ing sys­tem, such as Try­Book­ing or Eventbrite, to record and man­age vis­i­tor num­bers with both sys­tems offer­ing an easy, auto­mat­ed solu­tion. There is also flex­i­bil­i­ty on when events take place. Cen­tral pro­mo­tion will focus on the 27^th but farm­ers can choose any Sun­day in June to open their gates and still ben­e­fit from LOFS brand­ing and resources. 

LEAF Open Farm Sun­day Man­ag­er, Annabel Shack­le­ton explained why it is more impor­tant than ever to take part,

“LEAF Open Farm Sun­day plays a vital role pro­mot­ing British farm­ing, dis­pelling myths and help­ing peo­ple to val­ue the food they eat. We are active­ly encour­ag­ing more small­er events this year. A sim­ple farm walk for 30 peo­ple is both reward­ing and man­age­able for all involved. We know there may be some ner­vous­ness around Covid and we want to ensure both host farm­ers, and vis­i­tors attend­ing, feel safe and con­fi­dent to go ahead. As the­atres, cin­e­mas and din­ing indoors reopens, remem­ber trans­mis­sion rates are sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced out­doors. The farm­ing stage – our won­der­ful coun­try­side — is the per­fect venue to safe­ly wel­come visitors.”

Riv­er Croft in Inver­ness-shire held their first LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event in 2017 and in 2018 start­ed using the tick­et­ing ser­vice to effec­tive­ly man­age vis­i­tor num­bers. Michelle Ander­son-Car­roll explained why it was so useful:

“In 2018, we decid­ed to use the LOFS tick­et­ing sys­tem that LEAF offers (using Try­book­ing) and it real­ly is bril­liant! We set up two book­able tours but with a very man­age­able num­ber of 35 vis­i­tors on each and pro­mot­ed the link on Face­book. Both events were booked up quick­ly, but we also main­tained a wait­ing list on the sys­tem. It real­ly helped with know­ing when peo­ple were arriv­ing too. The track to our croft is a mile long with very few places for cars to pass – so before the sec­ond tour start­ed, we asked the vis­i­tors from the first tour not to leave until the sec­ond wave of vis­i­tors had arrived.”

Over recent months peo­ple have become more engaged than ever with farm­ing, nature, where their food comes from and how their food pur­chas­ing deci­sion impacts on cli­mate change

With hun­dreds of farm­ers across Britain expect­ed to take part in LOFS this year, the indus­try ini­tia­tive con­tin­ues to build com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions and help raise aware­ness of all that farm­ers do to main­tain the coun­try­side, enhance the envi­ron­ment and pro­duce our food.

Mrs Shack­le­ton said, 

“Our research shows that 87% of vis­i­tors on LEAF Open Farm Sun­day found the day changed the way they think about farm­ing from the tech­nol­o­gy required to run a farm­ing busi­ness through to how more sus­tain­able, regen­er­a­tive farm­ing is help­ing to address the cli­mate cri­sis through bet­ter soil and water man­age­ment, reduc­ing waste, using renew­able ener­gy and enhanc­ing biodiversity.

“It is also a chance to raise pub­lic aware­ness of the Coun­try­side Code and pub­lic access. Recent­ly there has been an increase in dam­age to grass and cere­al fields that look bare to the un-informed and there­fore deemed accept­able to walk on, but actu­al­ly are home to our future food. LEAF Open Farm Sun­day is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to explain why keep­ing to the des­ig­nat­ed foot­path is so impor­tant, with­out caus­ing con­flict or negativity.”

All farm­ers who reg­is­ter their LOFS event at www​.farm​sun​day​.org receive a com­pre­hen­sive hand­book and free resources There is a net­work of region­al LOFS ambas­sadors and the team at LEAF avail­able to dis­cuss plans and offer guid­ance. Farm­ers do not need to be mem­bers of LEAF to take part, but they do need to reg­is­ter their event.