Championing British agriculture at Open Farm Sunday

On 8 June, farms across the UK will welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for Open Farm Sunday 2025. This ‘annual open day’ for British farming, and its largescale opportunity to influence perceptions, is particularly significant this year as the industry campaigns against damaging policy changes.

The brainchild of Hertfordshire farmer Ian Pigott, the initiative started in 2006 before being developed by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), to enable the public to discover the work farmers do to produce food, nurture nature and protect the environment. The 2024 event saw 180,000 visitors across 225 host farms.

LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday Manager Annabel Shackleton explains: “It is a positive celebration of British farming.”

“Some farms have taken part every year since 2006, and it’s now part of the culture of their business. In 2006, MHS Farms near Peterborough hosted 25 visitors; last year, it held a two-day event with more than 10,000 visitors.”

Each host farm decides how to run an event that suits them. Many opt for a farm walk or tractor-trailer rides, with information boards, produce displays and talks from experts. Visitor numbers and flows can be managed through online ticketing services with capped numbers.

CLA member Overbury Enterprises in Gloucestershire has been involved with Open Farm Sunday since its inception, tailoring each year’s event to the farm’s requirements. Its events have been based around a farm walk with pauses to look at and discuss different crops, the estate’s wetlands, farm machinery, gamekeeping, beekeeping and bird ringing.

“The estate has 45km of paths, and Open Farm Sunday has been a great opportunity to explain what people can see from those paths, what we’re doing and why, particularly demonstrating our environmental activities,” says Farm Manager Jake Freestone. “In some years, we have invited people specifically who we knew had a concern about an estate activity, so they had the opportunity to see first-hand how it fitted in with our wider environmental strategy.”

CLA member Ragley Estate in Warwickshire took part for the first time in 2024. Farm Manager Andrew Keyte, who was involved with the initiative with previous employers, valued the opportunity to engage with the public and suggested an inaugural Ragley event, attended by 600 visitors. The team used existing parking and facilities, basing the event around tractor and trailer tours and incorporating discussions and displays on farming, butchery, beekeeping and machinery.

“A lot of people gave their time to help put the day together,” says Andrew.

Ragley Marketing Manager Lisa Hobson adds: “Many of the visitors had very limited or no understanding about the estate’s farming, or about farming processes more widely.

“We wanted to help our local audience recognise the relationship between what’s going on at Ragley, and the brand names that appear on their breakfast tables. We are building on that new understanding through our engagement on social media and with ongoing schools education activities.”

This increase in visitors’ understanding was reflected across last year’s host farms. In 2024, 96% of visitors gained a greater appreciation of what farmers do, 95% gained a better understanding of what sustainably produced food means, and 91% were encouraged to buy more British food. Annabel says: “Open Farm Sunday is not just one day for the visitors who attend – they leave with a longerlasting understanding and interest in farming and farming news.”

This is echoed by Jake Freestone. “Last year, our event included talks with local beekeepers and bird ringers, and demonstrations of our environmental work as well as good agricultural practices,” he says. “I was then invited to give a talk on these topics to the local community in the village hall.

“Another lasting impact we have seen is a different kind of engagement on social media – we are now pre-empting and explaining potential local concerns such as muck-spreading. Hosting visitors for Open Farm Sunday has been hugely beneficial to us and to the local community, it’s a great way for Overbury to connect with local people.”

Recent political events highlight the importance of Open Farm Sunday in facilitating these connections.

“Engaging with the public is hugely important at the moment, and Open Farm Sunday is a key moment in the farming calendar, a tool through which the farming industry comes together to promote its work,” says Annabel. “It can bring the public, the media and politicians onto farms to see our industry first hand and to speak in person with the people involved.”

Jake adds: “It’s a chance to raise awareness of farming’s small return on very significant investments, and it helps us find out about people’s perceptions of farming. Now more than ever, farming needs all the help we can muster.

“It’s also really morale boosting. Positive experiences for farm visitors are important, and it’s also good for farmers to visit other farms, talk about common challenges and reduce isolation.”

For Andrew Keyte, public engagement is increasingly valuable: “It’s becoming more important that we get across our messages about the challenges of growing crops, making a profit out of farming, the environmental and wildlife activities we are delivering, and explaining that an area looks untidy because it is doing a habitat job for birds and insects.”

“I would encourage every farm to sign up, or go along to a neighbouring farmer hosting an event,” says Jake.