LIFELONG farmer Alan Binning is among the county’s producers who this weekend will welcome visitors as part of Open Farm Sunday.

Farms across Oxfordshire will open their gates ,between 10am and 4pm, to give town and city dwellers the opportunity to sample country life.

They include Hill Farm in Steventon, which hosts the Truck music festival each year.

Mr Binning, 71, said: “It’s important that people are reminded that food starts somewhere before it gets to the supermarket.

“We open up the farm for lots of school visits and I often ask the children what they have had for breakfast. If they say Weetabix, that gives me the opportunity to say where it came from.”

The farm has 350 beef cattle here and 500 acres of arable with wheat and barley.

Mr Binning added: “We are not an organic farm, but our animals are only fed from food that is produced on the farm.

“That is with the exception of the past two years when we have been using molasses as part of the cattles’ feed.”

The Earth Trust Farm at Little Wittenham, near Didcot, will also take part.

Trust chief executive Harry Barton said: “Open Farm Sunday is a fantastic opportunity for everyone to enjoy the countryside. You can take time to listen to the birds, soak up the scenery, experience the smells of spring and really get in touch with the land that feeds us.

“These days, when most of us shop in supermarkets, it’s easy to forget that we all rely on a healthy countryside to provide the food we eat.”

Tom Allen-Stevens, of Wicklesham Lodge Farm in Faringdon, said: “Our Open Farm Sunday event will be bigger and better than last year.

“You can come and see the lambs, go for a tractor and trailer ride and you may even see some chicks hatching.”

There will be a farm tour on a trailer, and visitors will have the chance to sit in the driving seat of old and new tractors.

The farm’s Little Lodge, Oxfordshire’s smallest farm shop, will serve homemade cakes.