This is a subscriber-only article
A total of 19 farms located across Northern Ireland (NI) have opened their gates to members of the public for the annual Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend.
Organisers and sponsors of the event gathered at Laurel View Farm near Templepatrick on Saturday morning for the opening of the farms to the public.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the event, Ulster Farmers’ Union deputy president David Brown said that the initiative is in its eighth year and in 2018 the host farms welcomed over 16,000 visitors.
Connection
“The concept is to make a connection from farm to fork for the general public. Over the past few years, somewhere in the region of 40% of the visitors have come from an urban background and many have said that they haven’t visited a farm before,” he said.
On Friday, 1,700 schoolchildren visited the host farms in the run up to gates opening to the general public on Saturday.
All the main farming enterprises in NI are represented among the participating farms with a number also involved in equine.
Variety
“We have an absolute menagerie of animals from cows, sheep, goats, horses. There’s a variety on all of the farms. We are encouraging people to get out and visit the farms in their local area,” Brown said.
Sponsors and supporters of the Open Farm Weekend include Bank of Ireland, Asda, NFU Mutual, Livestock and Meat Commission, Ulster Farmers’ Union, Cranswick Country Foods, the Irish Farmers Journal, DAERA, Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster, CAFRE and Taste of Ulster.
Details of locations and opening times of the host farms are available at www.openfarmweekend.com
SHARING OPTIONS: