Hundreds visit Glensaugh farm on Open Farm Sunday

"Hosting the event for the first time, Donald Barrie and his team presented a perspective on Hutton farming and agricultural practice that is less familiar to the public"

The James Hutton Institute again took part in Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) Open Farm Sunday, the annual celebration of the story behind our food and how farming underpins our everyday lives. This time, hundreds turned up at our Glensaugh farm on Sunday 10th June to experience a stunning managed upland environment with geological formations, agroforestry, sheep grazing, bracken and heather, woodlands, small lochs and red deer.

The weather decided it was a good day to treat Glensaugh to its first rain in weeks, but 231 visitors disregarded the grey conditions and visited anyway, exceeding anticipated numbers for the day.

Hosting the event for the first time, Donald Barrie and his team presented a perspective on Hutton farming and agricultural practice that is less familiar to the public and to colleagues that what they typically see at Mylnefield farm on such occasions.

Colleagues from the other Hutton farms and from science groups across our sites contributed content and insight to over a dozen displays that were very warmly received by all comers, and the popularity of the trailer tours onto the farm’s hill ground more than justified the farm team’s effort in making the slow journey north with two of them, plus a plot combine; not common kit for Glensaugh.

There was a fair bit of local and neighbourly interest and curiosity, but plenty others had come from further afield, and others again had simply turned up to the farm on seeing the roadside banner on the Cairn o’Mount road. Many visitors followed our self-guided trail which goes through areas of geographic, social and historical change, including a glacial meltwater channel and a landscape of small lochs and hanging valleys.

As a first venture into Open Farm Sunday for Glensaugh, the day was a successful demonstration that there is no shortage of interest in the Institute’s work, in all its variety and that people genuinely appreciate the opportunity to see and hear about what the Institute does, even on a grey day.

Open Farm Sunday is an opportunity for everyone, young and old, to discover at first hand what it means to be a farmer and the fabulous work they do producing our food, enhancing the countryside and all the goods and services farmers provide. Learn more at www.farmsunday.org.