Taking a Leaf out of farm book

Almost a third of a million members of the public took the opportunity last month to visit working farms according to Linking Environment And Farming (Leaf) – the organisation behind the initiative.

The total number of visitors to a farm for Leaf Open Farm Sunday over the last 13 years since the project started has now reached over 2.2 million. According to the organisers, “demonstrating the enormous impact the day has on con- necting the public with farming and where their food comes from”.

Commenting on this year’s visitor numbers for Leaf, Annabel Shackleton said: “These figures show the public’s growing interest in, and support for, British farming and all that it delivers.”

A total of 362 farms across the UK opened across the country to welcome visitors including 20 in Scotland. Of those farms which opened, 26 per cent were taking part for the first time.

Shackleton added Leaf hoped that even more would do so next year.

“It is a unique opportunity for farmers to showcase all they do and it is vital that as many farmers get involved as possible,” she said.

Events on the various farms spanned a wide range of enterprise. Some smaller units hosted organised walks for local people, while others ran multi events with visitors in the hundreds and thousands.

Average number of visitors to each event was 811, the highest on record.