Open Farm Sunday grabs public imagination

"We were stunned by the response" was the verdict of Bedfordia Farms Manager Ian Rudge. "Once we started getting 30 calls a day leading up to the event we knew we had tapped into local peoples' imagination. By the end of the day nearly 1200 people, mostly from Bedford Town, had been through the farm."

This is the second year that Open Farm Sunday has been organised by LEAF and the second time Yara, the world's largest fertilizer producer, has been delighted to be a sponsor. "Encouraging the public to get out on farm is something we are passionate about" comments Rosie Carne, Yara's UK marketing manager, "and Open Farm Sunday is a brilliant way to demonstrate UK farming's excellent practices and care for the countryside in a way that is engaging and fun. This year we have encouraged our 160 UK workforce to take part and many were invited along by customers to provide information and give expert advice."

James East Yara's East Midlands Area Manager was fully involved at Bedfordia Farms. The 2225 ha arable and livestock farm took part in this years inaugural Open Farm Sunday and learnt many lessons in the process. Their philosophy was to make children's eyes wide with excitement, letting them touch, smell, point and play. A pile of grain was tipped into the yard and local tractor dealers supplied pedal tractors for small hands to get to grips with serious grain translocation. Sows with piglets were also moved into the yard along with a range of tractors and equipment. Information boards were strategically placed to allow parents to read whilst children played happily under the watchful and helpful eyes of 10 farm staff and 32 helpers all dressed in their Farm Sunday uniforms.

"It was a real team effort and a great atmosphere," continued Mr Rudge. "I thought our Farm staff were tremendous providing a human face to farming and showing real enthusiasm for getting our story across. A great deal of effort and planning was put into this event by us and suppliers such as Yara who supplied excellent information and gave their time to such good effect. I know we have changed opinions and caused people to talk about food and where it comes from"

Yara have seen the same response from the many farms to which they supplied information and people. Mark Tucker, Yara's Head of Agronomy, helped James Grant at Foldhill Farm near Boston. "People were fascinated by the use of GPS in fertilizer placement, having a big tractor that the children could get into helped enormously allowing us to talk to parents. We showed visitors how, by testing a farm's soil we could recommend accurate fertilizer use and combined with the N sensor determine the growing crops requirement as well, ensuring farmers can farm as efficiently as possible whilst minimizing environmental impact. Throughout the whole day we felt a real thirst for knowledge from the 400 people who attended and felt a sense of achievement that people were impressed and reassured as to how precise and safe the use of modern fertilizers could be."

Mr Grant employed a similar approach to Bedfordia, by entertaining the children and allowing access to tractors, sophisticated vegetable planting equipment and running a quiz for both adults and children. The quiz proved very popular as were the prizes of hampers, gift vouchers and boxes of chocolates. Each child also planted a potato into a tub to take home and grow.

Caroline Drummond chief executive of LEAF, the overall event organisers, estimated that well over 100,000 people visited over 400 farms across the country. Apart from a 'behind the scenes' look at life on the farm, and the nature it sustains, visitors also enjoyed a truly amazing range of activities including scarecrow making, trailer rides, sheep shearing, stock judging, creating grain collages and seeing how robotic milking machines worked.

Commenting on the events Ms Drummond said "With so many farmers now taking part, it is clear that they feel it is an extremely worthwhile event. Our recent survey of 1,000 adults revealed that 23% of people questioned did not realise that bread originates on British farms and 35% did not realise that farms provide the oats for porridge. This really highlights the importance of the focus of LEAF's work and proves the need to communicate with our consumers. With the active support of sponsors such as Yara, Open Farm Sunday is a fun and energising way of achieving this"