‘Open Farm Sunday is an opportunity for us to tell people what we do here, and why we do it,” says Phillip Chamberlain, of Crowmarsh Battle Farms, near Wallingford.

“They see the crops as they travel in and out of our village of Preston Crowmarsh, and this gives them a chance to ask us about what we are doing.”

Mr Chamberlain and his wife Esther and their staff will be opening their farm to invited visitors this year for the fourth time as part of Open Farm Sunday — organised by Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF), writes Elizabeth Edwards.

This year, on Sunday, June 7, their guests will be members of the Bensington Society.

Across Oxfordshire, and countrywide, other farms will be opening their gates to visitors. Some, like Crowmarsh Battle Farms, by special invitation, and others more widely to anybody with an interest in learning about how their food is produced and how farmers care for their own areas of the countryside.

Open Farm Sunday was launched by LEAF in 2006, and since then more and more farms have been joining in. Opening for the first time this year will be Challow Hill Farm, near Wantage. Lucy Blackwell, a member of the fifth generation of a family that has farmed there since 1919, is planning a day which will provide something for all age groups.

Miss Blackwell has been helping neighbouring farmers with their own open days in previous years. “Opening our own farm is something I always want to do, and this seems to be the right year,” she said.

She aims to cater for the interests of the whole family, with activities for children, cookery demonstrations, and displays of machinery — both that in use in the present day, and that from earlier times.

Miss Blackwell and her mother Lyn give talks about the way that farming has changed.

Challow Hill Farm has a head of some 300 Dexter cattle and about 25 ewes.

David and Catherine Christensen and the team at Kingston Hill Farm, near Kingston Bagpuize, will host two visits during the day, the morning tour commencing at 10.30am and the afternoon tour at 2pm.

Booking is essential on 01865 821238 or email christensen@clara.co.uk. No dogs.

At Eaton, a hamlet near the village of Appleton, Andrew Farrant at Manor Farm is another of the farmers who have been involved since the start of Open Farm Sunday, and he has seen the interest from the public grow.

He said: “We had a very low-key walk around the farm the first year, and in the second year we did a little bit more — a walk in the afternoon and looking at the dairy aspects of the farm. In the third year we introduced tractor and trailer rides around the farm. It has built up each year, and each time we have at least doubled the numbers of the year before. We started off with about 30 people, doubled this to around 60, and then last year we had about 200 visitors.”

For 2009, Mr Farrant is aiming to increase the activities even further, and plans to add a nature trail. He hopes that people will make a whole day of their visit.

“We aim to have a walk around the farm in the morning, and suggest that people bring a picnic which they can eat at lunchtime on the farmhouse lawn, and in the afternoon they can look at the milking and walk along the nature trail,” he said.

At Broadwell, near the Oxfordshire-Gloucestershire boundary, another Manor Farm will be open on June 7. Roger and June Goodenough, with their farm manager David Jenkinson, will be opening their farm for the third time for this annual event, but it also receives visitors throughout the year as it is one of the 57 LEAF demonstration farms.

The family has a long association with the land in Broadwell. Mr Goodenough can trace his ancestors to the farm in Tudor or early Stuart times.

Today, Manor Farm has a herd of 150 dairy cows and 300 ewes, and it grows arable crops of wheat, barley, beans and oil-seed rape. Among environmental measures taken at the farm have been hedge and tree planting. “Parts of this area can be very bleak in the winter, so you need to have the new hedges growing up first in order to provide shelter before you plant the trees,” said Mr Goodenough.

“The wildlife here has come back fairly well, and we would like more to come. We also have interesting wildflowers, including three species of orchids,” he added.

A list of participating farms is available on the website www.farmsunday.org or by calling 02476 413911.