Revealed: figures behind Open Farm Sunday success

The organisers of Open Farm Sunday have revealed a detailed survey of this year’s record-breaking event and called for more farmers to take part in 2014.

The figures, released by Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF), from a farmer and visitor survey at the event on 9 June show a total attendance of 201,000 people across 365 farms. With an average of 550 visitors at each venue it is the highest yet for any Open Farm Sunday since the event began in 2006.

Seven in 10 visitors attended their first Open Farm Sunday event while 34,000 people (one in six) revealed they were visiting a farm for the first time.

The survey results also showed the growing interest in farmers getting involved. Three in 10 host farmers were running an event for the first time and farms in every region of Great Britain took part.

The statistics also showed that farms of all types opened their gates:

A full range of activities took place to engage and inform visitors, LEAF added. Almost 80% had animals at their events. Other popular activities included – hosted farm tours (63%), static machinery displays (59%) and tractor and trailer rides (41%).

Open Farm Sunday event manager Annabel Shackleton said that farmers had now welcomed a total of more than one million visitors to their farms since the event began seven years ago.

“All types of farms opened up from large arable farms in the east through to a hill farm on the Isle of Mull. Each event, whatever its size, gave consumers the opportunity to discover the story behind their food and the vital work farmers do.”
Annabel Shackleton, Open Farm Sunday manager

“These results show the event continues to introduce agriculture to new audiences and remains as important as ever in raising the public’s understanding of farming and how their food is produced,” said Miss Shackleton.

“All types of farms opened up from large arable farms in the east through to a hill farm on the Isle of Mull. Each event, whatever its size, gave consumers the opportunity to discover the story behind their food and the vital work farmers do.

“It was particularly pleasing to see that we continue to attract new farms that haven’t opened their gates before. The positive comments from farmers and visitors on our social media networks and in person show why Open Farm Sunday is so critical in helping to bridge the gap between farmers and consumers,” she added.

But she said there was still a need to build on the this year’s success and increase the farm numbers in 2014.

LEAF is keen to hear from any farmers with feedback or suggestions for ways to improve Open Farm Sunday.

“There are still so many farmers that haven’t yet opened their gates. We hope the success of this year’s event will help persuade some of them to take part next year. We provide lots of help and support for farmers to make all events as successful as possible but if there’s anything more we could be doing we would like to know.”

The event will take place on Sunday 8 June 2014, with registrations opening on 1 December.

The event is jointly sponsored by Farmers Weekly, Asda, Marks and Spencer, The Co-operative, Waitrose, Country Life butter, Frontier Agriculture, John Deere, LEAF Marque, National Farmers Union, Syngenta, DEFRA and the Agricuture and Horticulture Development Board. A pollinator survey carried out the public was sponsored by Cotswold Seeds.

For more information visit www.farmsunday.org or follow @openfarmsunday on Twitter.

Contact Annabel Shackleton on 024 7641 3911 with suggestions on improving the event.

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