FACE and the National Farm Attractions Network (NFAN) joined forces this week to help farmers learn more about hosing educational visits on their farms. Farmers were lucky enough to meet at Godstone Farm, a popular farm attraction located in Surrey.

The farmers who attended came from a wide variety of farms across the South East region including commercial working farms, open farms, city farms, small holdings, school farms and land-based colleges.   As well as enjoying a series of presentations from FACE, farmers learnt more about the planning implications of hosting farm visits from Barry Davies of NFAN.

Farmers were also lucky enough to hear from Richard Oatway, manager at Godstone Farm who shared some of the ‘highs and lows’ of setting-up and managing a Farm Attraction.  During lunch in the spring sunshine farmers enjoyed the opportunity to share their own experiences with each other.
The meeting was rounded off with a tour of the farm during which time farmers took away lots of practical ideas for offering children educational experiences on their own farms.

Surrey Farmer Rowan Downing said that she had enjoyed the meeting and having hosted some local interest groups on her farm was now motivated to expand her offering to local schools.