Great 'steading $$$$ idea

Sustainable Joy · #1 01/08/08, 01:06 PM

As a kid in Cincy, my elementary school took trips every year to a local "farm". It was just outside city limits. This city fellow had maybe 3/4 an acre with a small pond, some ducks, maybe 10 chickens and a few goats.

Each kid paid about $5 for admission, plus a few dollars to cover the bus rental to go there. There were maybe 25 kids per class. This was in the 1980's, so adjust for inflation to get an idea how much it'd be today.

He'd walk us around, and show us the "farm". He'd show us the chickens, tell us what they eat, and let a lucky volunteer pour the food into the feeder. He'd show us the geese, and show us the eggs. Then he'd let one room-mother milk his goat while the rest of us watched. We would walk around the pond and look at it. The entire tour took maybe 2 hours.

We'd always see 3 or 4 other classes on trips there each time we'd go. That place was always busy.

Over the privacy fence one time my mom (room mother on that trip) pointed out that he had a huge hot tub. With that amount of money I don't wonder!

Getting a city slicker to pay you for the chance to milk your dairy goat, how would that sit with you! If you have older teens, they can do the tour while you do the real work that needs to be done. It's also a service to the children, some of whom really NEED to learn about the basics of agriculture, as they don't even know where eggs come from.

goatsareus · #2 01/08/08, 01:12 PM

getting a city slicker to milk my goats???? no way, they're not touching my animals. And I'm not wild about a bunch of kids wandering around my place. Maybe a good idea for someone, but I would not put my dairy (not nanny) goats through such unnecessary stress and trauma.

mark.cheryl · #3 01/08/08, 01:20 PM

My wife thought of this idea as well. I think you would need a part of the homestead sectioned off and done up as an idyllic farm. No junk, no machinery, nothing dangerous. If you have something educational to provide it might be a solid idea.

Kazahleenah · #4 01/08/08, 01:20 PM

Not to mention that these days the added insurance you'd have to carry would make it SOoooooo not worth it.

Kaza

Sustainable Joy · #5 01/08/08, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark.cheryl

My wife thought of this idea as well. I think you would need a part of the homestead sectioned off and done up as an idyllic farm. No junk, no machinery, nothing dangerous. If you have something educational to provide it might be a solid idea.

It was sectioned off from the guy's yard. His house, complete with hot tub, was on one side of the fence, with all the farm stuff on the other side.

I think it is an educational experience. Most kids these days know almost nothing about the way food is produced, and even less about livestock animals. I always enjoyed it as a child, even though my mom grumped about paying somebody to do his chores for him.

Sustainable Joy · #6 01/08/08, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goatsareus

getting a city slicker to milk my goats???? no way, they're not touching my animals. And I'm not wild about a bunch of kids wandering around my place. Maybe a good idea for someone, but I would not put my dairy (not nanny) goats through such unnecessary stress and trauma.

Dairy, not nanny. My mistake. I'll edit the original post in a minute.

ETA: He showed us how to milk the goat first, then had a teacher or room-mother (always an adult) do it while he supervised and held the goat.

I suppose you could have 2 or 3 dairy goats who didn't produce much milk anymore and keep them in a separate pen from your main dairy goats. That way they wouldn't pick up any bugs and pass them to your main dairy goats. I got unbelievably sick from kissing a goat on the nose once as a child, so maybe children could pass sicknesses on to goats. Hadn't considered that at first.

It's true kids can be very wild. At his place we had to have several room mothers in addition to the teacher with us, making sure we were all acting right.

I know it wouldn't be for everyone, but I know that guy made a good living. He had a flashy car, too.

steff bugielski · #7 01/08/08, 01:43 PM

Well I have camps coming in the summer. They are kids from the city mostly religious jewish children. They get to see the chickens and bunnies and goats and pigs and cow. They get to watch me milk and taste the milk if they want. They also walk down the center of the garden and I show them where thier food comes from. I get paid by the camp. $40 it takes about 30 mins. They take tons of pics and sometimes they bring me cookies. They come back every year.
I also do the same for families again Jewish summer folks. If they are here at milking time they will buy the milk, since they can watch me do it, cholov yisol(sp). I usually get $20 for a family plus they always end up buying produce.
I take reservations in the summer so Jewish families can come and watch me milk. The only way they can drink my milk.
Works great for me.

MariaAZ · #8 01/08/08, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazahleenah

Not to mention that these days the added insurance you'd have to carry would make it SOoooooo not worth it.

Kaza

That's the first thought that crossed my mind

wewantout · #9 01/08/08, 01:57 PM

There are several farms that do this and it is a HUGE financial increase to the farms. Most of what I have seen as far as the insurance goes falls on the schools and the farm has a waiver the school signs that states that the schools field trip insurance is in place with a copy of a letter from the insurance company.

This is a very important thing for us to do, it could help increase a more buy local mentality. Some farms are not set up for it but you could make it a year or two goal.
Just run the numbers and see what kind of extra income you could bring in as well as educate a younger generation on why to eat organic, where their food comes from and why to buy locally.

Sustainable Joy · #10 01/08/08, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wewantout

There are several farms that do this and it is a HUGE financial increase to the farms. Most of what I have seen as far as the insurance goes falls on the schools and the farm has a waiver the school signs that states that the schools field trip insurance is in place with a copy of a letter from the insurance company.

This is a very important thing for us to do, it could help increase a more buy local mentality. Some farms are not set up for it but you could make it a year or two goal.
Just run the numbers and see what kind of extra income you could bring in as well as educate a younger generation on why to eat organic, where their food comes from and why to buy locally.

I hadn't even thought about the benefit of it basically being a chance to upsell your products. You can explain how your chickens only eat organic, natural feed, and contrast that with the factory farming... that's a real bonus.

pheasantplucker · #11 01/08/08, 02:21 PM

I'd rather open my place to fewer kids (recommended) that have a genuine interest in what's going on instead of a stampede of a bunch of kids who just want to get "out of class" for the afternoon...

Silvercreek Farmer · #12 01/08/08, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazahleenah

Not to mention that these days the added insurance you'd have to carry would make it SOoooooo not worth it.

Kaza

NC has a no liability law for agricultural activities (including horses), I sure that doesn't include gross negligence, but it sure does help. You might want to check your state...

Jim S. · #13 01/08/08, 03:26 PM

Sustainable Joy, yes, that's a profitable idea. It's proven, too. You also can profit by planting pumpkins and when Halloween is near, get the schoolkids to come out and pick their own for a price. You also have on hand other produce you have either bought wholesale or grown yourself, a turck farm's delight for mom and dad. You ride em all around on a haywagon thru the pumpkin patch til they find theirs.

You have a small petting zoo, and for school classes, you give a homey spiel about farming and its importance.

Three farms near here do variants on this, and they rake in the cool cash every year. One guy buys a bunch of small gourds el cheapo, and grabs a buck each for them as part of his produce stand. Another has home crafts in a shed and cashes in on those, too. At one of them, just about every animal in the petting zoo goes in the freezer after the touristy season passes. On weekends, you get live country music, and maybe offer BBQ chicken plates for $10 each.

Aim to get the kids to want to come, and then take aim at mama and daddy's money once they are there. Good luck!

RichieC · #14 01/08/08, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Lindsay

NC has a no liability law for agricultural activities (including horses), I sure that doesn't include gross negligence, but it sure does help. You might want to check your state...

No no no no no no no.

A petting zoo or agro-tourism set-up like the one proposed in the initial post needs insurance. Not having it is a good way to lose your place.

Maura · #15 01/08/08, 03:42 PM

So how much does liability insurance cost? I wonder because the first thing people always say is- the insurance costs too much. How much, and how much extra income would the farm generate?

If I ran a real dairy, I wouldn't want classrooms of kids coming through, but if I had an educational farm, I'd keep a couple of dairy goats for my own use, and as a prop. I'd have a few sheep and some raw fleece and carded fleece to show the progress made with wool, sheep to shawl. There's quite a bit one could do, especially if the students are lower el. Just the discovery that fresh laid eggs are warm until you refrigerate them would be an eye opener.

Janis Sauncy · #16 01/08/08, 03:54 PM

When my now-7th grader was in kindergarten, his class went on a field trip to just such a place. I went as a chaperone.

They had chickens, a garden, rabbits and goats. They took the kids around and explained to them where the eggs came from, things about the rabbits, and gave the kids each a shot at trying to milk a goat. You know, everything we had at home.

Alex was so incredibly bored.

There was also a gal who lived near where I used to who had a "non-profit" teaching farm. She had a lot of high-risk, older kids who would come out to the "farm" and "learn" how to do chores. She got free help that way and she probably also had tax exempt status. She also raised pigs and beef for sale.

I wonder, since it was "non-profit," if grants would be available to someone interested in that kind of set-up?

Personally, I don't think I'd want the liability. A lot of petting zoos and such have been in the news in recent years for e-coli.

Janis

foxtrapper · #17 01/08/08, 05:27 PM

There's also zoning and traffic issues to consider. Those are the two main ones that stopped me. I'd planned on setting up gum-ball feeder and letting people feed the waterfowl and such, since they were already frequently stopping by.

County came down on that sort of thing fast and hard. Oh the licences, fees, zoning violations, etc. They made it crystal clear that there is to be no friendliness to farming in this so called farming community.

MisFitFarm · #18 01/08/08, 09:06 PM

We've considered doing this for several years. I used to teach PreSchool at an inner-city school. We took the kids on a fieldtrip to the orchard, which also has a few farm animals. The poor kids, some of them didn't know the difference between a dog and a goat! These are kids who are never outside of the city limits.

Kentucky has some great programs for AgriTourism. We are seriously considering it for the next year.

Ernie · #19 01/08/08, 09:09 PM

There's insurance, but most of that doesn't protect you from getting sued. Little Susie steps on a fence nail and suddenly you're out your farm. Time and time again, waivers and contracts have been tossed out in court as completely invalid.

So there's that ... and then there's the fact that I don't like other people's kids a whole lot. I don't want anyone on my property whom I wouldn't show around for free.

Shadow · #20 01/08/08, 11:10 PM

Personally known two people who tried simular operations both had lawsuits things that really were not anyones fault one was huge one was only 25,000 dollars both had insurance but one the insurance was not enough to pay and they lost everything. The $25,000 judgment was paid by their insurance which then cancelled on them and they could not get more insurance and with out the tours could not keep the farm in operation and sold it. You will not be on my farm and be paying a fee that makes it a buisness. In fact you will not be on the farm unless I consider you a friend and one I can trust. Law suits are a curse on us all and I have no lawyer friends that one you can figure out.