Northumberland dairy farm opens its doors to the public

Visitors to Thornington Farm at Mindrum saw first-hand where the milk comes from, alongside meeting animals, touring the farm and sampling some of the products.

To mark the occasion, the farm hosted a series of competitive events with attendees – including an egg and spoon race, hay bale hurdles and ‘welly wanging’.

Tom Neill of Thornington Farm said: “We were able to answer people’s questions about farming, correcting some of the common misconceptions that people have.

“Aldi’s Dairy Farm Partnership is a great support network for us, helping us to make small changes to our farm to improve the way we do things, and it was great to show that off to the public.”

Thornington Farm was one of two UK dairy farms working with Aldi and Arla to participate in their Open Farm Sunday – an initiative supported by Aldi’s Dairy Farm Partnership programme.

Launched in 2018 in partnership with Arla, the programme aims to support British farmers to continuously explore, develop and practice the highest standards in dairy farming across six key areas of farm business, with a particular focus on animal welfare, the environment and research and development.

Liz Fox, corporate responsibility director at Aldi UK, said: “Inviting the public to visit some of the farms in our programme and learn all about the farming process has the power to change the way people think about farming, so we’re pleased the event was a success.”