Farms Prepare for Bank of Ireland Virtual Farm Weekend

The free event will see almost 30 farms that are participating in one of Northern Ireland’s biggest awareness initiatives, that seeks to reconnect consumers with farms and farm producers, as well as showcasing the excellent work farmers do in caring for their local environment.

Although no visitors can attend the farms, online viewers will get to see a schedule of live activities from 10am-4pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as enjoying farm videos of each participating farm streamed online across Open Farm Weekend’s social media channels and shown at www.openfarmweekend.com

Live activities will include sheep dog trials, wool spinning, tag rugby with an Ulster Rugby player, cooking demonstrations with a celebrity chef and of course the opportunity to see a menagerie of animals including rare breed hens, alpacas, rare breed pigs, mountain reared sheep and horses.

Viewers will also be able to see the huge amount of effort our farmers put into looking after the landscape we all enjoy, including traditional farming methods and environmental practices that help make Northern Ireland’s farming industry world class.

This is the 10th year of the Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend initiative which is run by the Ulster Farmers’ Union and supported by Bank of Ireland, Moy Park, the Livestock & Meat Commission NI, ASDA and NFU Mutual.

David Brown, chairman for Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend and deputy president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union said: “This year’s event is going to be special for us as we celebrate 10 years of showing the public what a wonderful job our farms and farm producers do in making and growing the local food we enjoy so much.

“We would have loved to welcome visitors to the farm gate but going virtual opens the farming community up to a new audience.

“We encourage as many people as possible to engage on social media over the Weekend and make the farms feel valued and supported in the incredibly important contribution they make to all our lives.”