Date/Time
Date(s) - 23/06/2012 - 24/06/2012
12:00 am

Location
Ulster Farmers’ Union
475 Antrim Road
Belfast
Antrim
BT15 3DA

United Kingdom

The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has welcomed the initial response from the NI farming community to its latest initiative, Open Farm Weekend but is reminding farmers to get in touch if they wish to take part.

John Thompson, UFU President said, “We’ve been talking to a wide range of farmers and food companies across Northern Ireland about getting involved in Open Farm Weekend between 23rd and 24th June and we’re very encouraged by the positive reaction and enthusiasm we’ve been met with so far.  This is an exciting opportunity to show the public what really happens on farms and where the food we eat everyday comes from. We want to encourage farmers to grasp the opportunity and help us put the spotlight on the hard work they do day in day out.”

Participating farmers will receive training in April from LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) to help them understand the technicalities of hosting an event and ensure they get the most out of their involvement in the project.

“LEAF has been working on Open Farm Sunday in the rest of the UK for the past 7 years,” says John, “and they have a wealth of experience in showing farmers how to tell their stories and how to best prepare their farm to receive visitors from the public. An established local open farm will also deliver further advice to farmers and event organisers will make pre-event visits to ensure all for each on-farm event.”

Farmers will be able to design their day to suit their own needs but some are already discussing fun activities such as treasure hunts, wildlife spotting guided walks and sack races. Open Farm Weekend organisers will be providing participating farms with resources to support their event such as bespoke storyboards demonstrating each farm’s place in the food chain and each farmer will receive support, advice, encouragement and publicity from the event organisers at each step in the lead up to 23rd and 24th June, 2012.

The buzz is building around this exciting new date in the Northern Ireland calendar and with a special ‘farm in the city’ launch in Belfast City Centre for early April, organisers are almost ready to finalise the list of participating farms.

John Thompson concludes, “To find out more about getting involved, please visit our website www.openfarmweekend.com , find us on Facebook and Twitter, or call Lindsay at Food NI on 02890 249449.”

Open Farm Weekend is an Ulster Farmers’ Union project, supported by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Northern Ireland Regional Food Programme, The Prince’s Countryside Fund, Bank of Ireland (UK) and NFU Mutual.