Open Farm Sunday 2026 is on Sunday 7 June — and this year it’s the event’s 20th anniversary. Hundreds of working farms across the UK throw open their gates for the day, almost all of them free to visit, with tractor rides, lambs to meet, nature trails, machinery demos and farm-shop tastings. If you’ve never been, it’s one of the best low-cost family days out of the year. Last updated: 24 May 2026.
This guide walks through how to find a participating farm near you, what to expect when you arrive, what to pack for an honest British June, how to choose between several farms if you’re lucky enough to have a few local options, and what to do at home afterwards to keep the curiosity going.
What is Open Farm Sunday?
Open Farm Sunday is the UK farming industry’s annual open day, coordinated by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming). It launched in 2006 and now reaches hundreds of thousands of visitors each June. Farms decide for themselves what to put on — some run a small Sunday tea-and-tractor-tour for neighbours, others lay on a full-day festival with food stalls, demos, livestock parades and craft tents.
What they all share is the same simple idea: give the public the chance to see how their food is actually grown, who grows it and what life on a working British farm really looks like. For families with primary-school children especially, it’s a brilliant way to bridge the gap between supermarket shelf and field.
How to find an Open Farm Sunday event near you
The most reliable place to search is the official Visit A Farm map on farmsunday.org. You can search by postcode or browse by region. New farms keep being added right up to the weekend itself, so it’s worth checking again in the final week if your first look came back thin.
Most farms post their own programme on the listing — a rough timetable, what’s on, whether you need to book, parking arrangements and any age guidance. Read it before you set off; an hour in the car for a 30-minute “see the tractor and leave” visit is a hard sell with hungry under-fives in the back.
You don’t have to wait until Open Farm Sunday to meet real farmers. If you can’t get to a participating farm on 7 June — or you want to keep the conversation with local producers going all year — see our UK Weekend Farmers’ Market Directory to find your nearest weekend farmers’ market. Many of the same growers and meat producers who open their gates on OFS also trade at weekend markets across the spring, summer and autumn.
What to expect on the day
No two Open Farm Sunday events look identical, but most include some mix of the following:
- Tractor and trailer rides — usually a slow loop around the fields with the farmer talking through what’s growing where.
- Livestock up close — bottle-feeding lambs and calves, meeting sows and piglets, peering into the dairy parlour at milking time.
- Machinery to climb on — combine harvesters, balers, sprayers. The cabs are usually open and the photo opportunities are very good indeed.
- Nature walks and pond dipping — wildflower meadows, hedgerow tours, beetle banks. Wellies essential.
- Farm-shop and food tastings — local cheese, bread, honey, ice cream. Bring cash for the smaller producers; not every stall takes contactless.
- Demonstrations — sheepdogs working, shearing, butter-making, hand-milking, beekeeping suit-ups.
- Crafts and games for children — straw bale mazes, scarecrow building, willow weaving, face painting.
Bigger sponsored farms can pull crowds in the thousands; smaller family farms might host fifty people across the day. Both are worth doing — they’re genuinely different experiences.
Choosing the right farm for your family
If the map shows three or four farms within sensible driving distance, the listings can blur into one. A quick framework that’s served us well:
- Under-3s — pick a smaller livestock-led farm with shorter distances and a quiet field for a sit-down with a snack. Big sponsored events with car-park queues and crowd-funnels are exhausting at that age.
- Ages 3–7 — this is the sweet spot. Most farms are pitched at this band: animals to feed, tractors to climb, a nature trail short enough to finish. Look for events that mention “trail” or “scavenger hunt” in the listing.
- Ages 7–11 — primary-aged children do well with arable farms and the more technical demos: combine harvesters, drones, soil-testing kits. Many of them have done a farm visit at school and like the recognition.
- Tweens and teens — pick a mixed farm with a food angle: a vineyard, a cheese maker, a craft brewery on an estate. The hands-on production tours give them something to talk about with peers afterwards.
If your local listings include a working farm whose milk or vegetables you already buy at the supermarket, that’s a strong pick at any age — the “this is where our breakfast comes from” connection lands harder when there’s a label they recognise.
What to wear and what to pack
June in Britain refuses to commit. We’ve done Open Farm Sunday in 24°C sunshine and in horizontal drizzle in the same fortnight. Pack for both:
- Wellies or sturdy walking shoes — and a spare pair of socks in the car. Mud is a feature, not a bug.
- Layers — t-shirts under fleeces under a packable waterproof. Yard concrete is colder than you’d think.
- Sun hat and waterproof hat — yes, both, in the same bag. Suncream too.
- Hand sanitiser and wet wipes — useful, but they don’t replace soap and water. Always use the proper hand-wash facilities provided before eating.
- Picnic and a refillable water bottle — most farms have refreshments but queues can be long. A picnic blanket lives permanently in the boot from May onwards.
- A change of clothes for under-fives — there will be a tractor ride, there will be a hay bale, there will be a small accident involving one or both.
- Cash — for the small producers and the honesty boxes. £20 in coins and small notes is plenty.
- A camera or charged phone — small children with newborn lambs are very photogenic indeed.
Safety on a working farm
Working farms are friendly but they’re also workplaces with heavy machinery and live animals. The official Things to Remember guidance is worth a read before you go. The short version:
- Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water after touching animals or their surroundings, and always before eating. This matters most for under-fives.
- Don’t eat or drink while you’re in the animal areas.
- Keep children close to you and out of any “staff only” or roped-off zones.
- Don’t feed the animals unless the farm has set up a specific feeding station with the right food.
- If you bring a pushchair, give the wheels a clean before you put it back in the car.
If it rains
Most Open Farm Sunday events run rain or shine — the livestock, tractors and demos all still happen. What you lose in heavy rain is the picnic comfort and the long nature walks. If the forecast looks grim, our advice is:
- Go anyway, but go early — many of the indoor demonstrations cluster in the first two hours of the event.
- Eat in the farm café or covered area rather than carrying a wet picnic across a field.
- Have a plan B in your back pocket: a nearby farm shop, a National Trust property with a tearoom, or an indoor visitor centre. A wet morning at the farm followed by a dry afternoon at a cosy café is still a great Sunday.
Make a weekend of it
Open Farm Sunday is a Sunday event by design, but the Saturday is a gift. A few ways to stretch it into a full weekend:
- Saturday at a farmers’ market, Sunday at the farm. Pick up something local — sourdough, cheese, strawberries — and bring it on the Sunday picnic. Our Farmers’ Market Directory covers every weekend market we know of.
- Pair with a nearby National Trust or English Heritage property. Many sit close to working farmland — Felbrigg, Wimpole, Blickling and Stonehenge all have nearby farms that have taken part in OFS in recent years. Read our visits at Felbrigg Hall, Wimpole Estate and Blickling Hall for ideas.
- Add a working farm park. Places like Easton Farm Park in Suffolk run their own daily programmes all summer — a useful Saturday warm-up to OFS itself.
- Pick-your-own. Many PYO farms time their first strawberry openings to the second week of June — a lovely Sunday-afternoon stop on the way home.
Keeping the day going at home
The bit that turns a farm visit from “nice morning out” into something memorable is what you do with it afterwards. A few ideas, all with a recipe or activity to back them up:
- If you met spring lambs, try our weekend roast lamb with thyme and spring vegetables for Sunday tea, or the leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary.
- If you saw the vegetable fields, plant something at home with the children. Our Gardening Jobs for May guide has age-appropriate suggestions, and starting a compost heap is a brilliant follow-up to seeing how a real farm closes its loop.
- If you watched butter-making or saw the dairy parlour, get a glass jar of double cream and shake until it separates. It takes about 8 minutes of energetic shaking and produces real butter and buttermilk. Try it with our bread and honey ideas.
- If carrots, leeks or beetroot caught their eye, our how to cook Chantenay carrots guide turns the next supermarket trip into a small triumph of recognition.
Open Farm Sunday FAQs
When is Open Farm Sunday 2026?
Open Farm Sunday 2026 takes place on Sunday 7 June 2026. It is the 20th annual event since LEAF launched the initiative in 2006. The next Open Farm Sunday will be the second Sunday of June 2027.
Is Open Farm Sunday free?
The vast majority of farms charge nothing for entry on Open Farm Sunday — it’s the founding principle of the event. A small number charge a token amount for parking, refreshments or specific activities such as tractor rides. Always check the individual farm’s listing on the Visit A Farm map before you set off so you know what to expect.
Do I need to book in advance?
Most farms welcome drop-in visitors without booking. A growing number — particularly the larger sponsored events — ask for free advance tickets to manage parking and timed tractor rides. The farm’s listing on farmsunday.org will say if booking is needed. As a rule, if it does need booking, do it in the week before — popular slots fill up fast.
What time does Open Farm Sunday start and finish?
Times are set by each farm individually. Most events run from around 10am or 11am to 4pm or 5pm, often with the busiest hour in the middle. Arrive in the first hour if you want quieter livestock pens and shorter tractor-ride queues.
Can I take a pushchair or wheelchair?
Many farms are pushchair- and wheelchair-friendly, but the terrain is genuine farm yard and farm track rather than tarmac — uneven, sometimes muddy, sometimes steeper than expected. Off-road buggies and three-wheeled prams cope best. Check the individual farm’s listing for explicit accessibility notes, and ring ahead if you have specific needs.
Are dogs allowed at Open Farm Sunday?
Most farms do not allow dogs on Open Farm Sunday because of the livestock and food-tasting areas. Assistance dogs are always welcome. If you want to bring a family dog, check the specific farm’s listing — a small number do permit dogs on leads in designated areas.
What if it rains on Open Farm Sunday?
Open Farm Sunday is rain or shine. Most activities — tractor rides, livestock pens, indoor demonstrations, food stalls — continue in wet weather. Walking trails and craft tents may be affected. Bring waterproofs, eat indoors and consider arriving early before the heaviest rain. If conditions are dangerous (high winds, lightning) some events do cancel; the farm will post a notice on its social media that morning.
What age range is Open Farm Sunday best for?
It works from toddlers through to tweens, though the sweet spot is roughly ages 3 to 11. Under-3s do best on smaller, quieter farms; older primary-aged children get the most from arable farms with machinery demonstrations; teens engage well with food-production tours such as cheesemaking, vineyards or craft breweries on farm sites.
Did we miss something? Drop us a comment below with your favourite Open Farm Sunday memory or your pick for the best participating farm in your area — we’ll add it to next year’s update.
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