How to Handle Farm Visitors

[hiddensprings]

I am wondering how other handle people that want to visit your farm. I am talking about the people you meet that say "oh, you have a farm. I'd love to bring my children out to see what a farm is like." Then when they show up, they come with their children that are scared to death of animals. I spent over an hour with a young couple with 3 children this past weekend that screamed every time a dog, baby goat, chicken or anything looked at them. This isn't the first time its happened. I mean, if you know your kids are afraid of dogs, what makes you think they will suddenly love my dogs? Or, how about the people that come and then let their children run wild. Or the ones that come in flip flops and then want to complain because they stepped in a cow pie.
I think exposing children to farm life is great but I need to find a balance with my "visitors". This past weekends visit has basically caused me want to post a sign that say "NO VISITORS". When people want to visit, I emailed them a list of rules such as 1) don't bring your family pet 2) no open-toed shoes 3) left gates closed 4) The fences are electric, please let your family know Apparently either the parents can't read OR they don't care. Am I the only one? How do you handle this? Or maybe I've just become anti-social as I've aged

[luvrulz]

Since we always have something going on, I suggest they call first before coming over. During the phone call, I tell them what to expect. If things get a little hairy once they get here, I quickly tell them that I have another something to take care of and they need to come back some other time if they'd like more info/tour/whatever.

[Awnry Abe]

I have friends that are curious about this lifestyle of mine and call short-notice and want a visit. They always do so on pristine weather days, which are precious working days, and I always turn them down. I tell them their chances are better when the weather is garbage. In short, I just explain the situation, and they are understanding. Self-guided visits are forbidden. This place is just not safe for the un-aware. I don't care who they are.

[Maverick_mg]

I tell them to give me their email or to email me for a copy of our visitor policy. We have had quit a few drop ins and I just tell them up front that this is a working farm and here what we expect of visitors and why we have the rules we do.

[CIW]

Duct tape for those under 12 and for those over 12 a big stick seems to get the point across.

[ChristieAcres]

I no longer allow "visitors," and politely tell all requesters that this is my private home and property, not "open to the public."

Everything I want to sell can be taken to a friend's property, which has hwy frontage. They sell whatever I drop off.

[chickenista]

We don't allow 'visitors' either.
We used to sell animals from the farm, but people wanted to 'shop' the barn for a danged hour instead of just picking up their chicks and leaving.
'That's a pretty rooster. How much for him> I've got $5."
(about my flock sire and they could not understand why I wouldn't sell etc.. ad nauseum)

So now..
and it really is true as well.

We do not allow visitors to the farm for bio-security reasons.
We have a closed farm and closed flocks and do not want pathogens brought in on shoes etc..
We did know someone who picked up a horrid disease at her feed store and had her whole flock put down and burned and can't have animals for X amount of years.

The bio-security and the health of our animals thing seems to really work and sounds impressive.
I used to even make sure that I did not wear my 'off farm' shoes out of the car, but have gotten slack.

[SueMc]

We always joke (sort of) that we're going to be like the brothers on the movie "Second Hand Lion", that is, sit on the porch with shot guns across our knees to impress the visitors and salesmen.

[Whisperwindkat]

I lay down the rules before people come and also explain that this is a working farm and children cannot be left to run without supervision. I did have one family that used to come out for our homeschool group get together that did not supervise their girls. I caught the girls running my pregnant goat herd. I reprimanded the children in front of the mom (who did nothing and thought it was cute that they were "playing with the goats"). A little while later the girls were at it again and I simply asked the mother to take her kids and leave, they were not welcome any longer. I have had some children who cry and they typically are not an issue. The parents tend to them and we pretty much ignore their histrionics. But we just don't have many visitors and prefer it that way. Most of our other visitors are farming or country living families so they don't present those types of issues.

[rod44]

We love to have non farm visiters come. Love a good laugh when the step in a cow pie. It is good to educate them on rural life and farm animals. If the kids do something wrong they stop when you tell them. Of course ours isn't a "working" farm. We are retired and it is a "good let's take a break farm"

[bluemoonluck]

Something else to keep in mind.... I don't live on a farm anymore but I do have my dogs that I show and breed. Lots of people want to come by my house to meet the dogs and talk about them with me. And I used to be perfectly okay with that - I'm not ashamed of the conditions my dogs are kept in in the least (spoiled beasts that they are!).

BUT there are three things that have stopped me from opening the doors of my home to strangers under these circumstances:

1) Already mentioned here - biosecurity. A friend of mine was showing her Boxers to a potential puppy buyer and as they were leaving they told her that "of all the Boxers we've seen today, yours are the best!" Turned out they'd already visited several other breeders that day, and even thou she'd had them wash their hands that didn't address their shoes or the clothing they'd been wearing. She immediately sanitized everything and luckily her pups were ok, but it could have easily ended up with her losing the pups to parvo or something similar.

2) AR activists love to pose as potential puppy buyers, come into your home, then invent allegations and call the authorities on you. The last thing any of us want is to have animal control knocking on our door because someone reported us - even if we can prove the allegations are false, in some areas AC will still seize your animals while everything gets sorted out, and the attorney fees you rack up defending yourself aren't recoverable when you come out clean.

I had a guy come visit my dogs when I lived in Utah, he was supposedly based out of NY but in SLC for business and he asked if he could come meet the dogs. I have kennels set up in a temperature controlled garage that the dogs spend part of the day in, but this guy kept asking if I could put one of the dogs in the kennels so he could take their picture (?). I told him he could take pics of the dogs outside running around where we were playing with them, but I didn't see any need for him to insist upon a pic of the dogs in their kennels. He did take a number of pics of the dogs in their crates in the house. Nothing ever came of it, but it set off all sorts of alarm bells for me.

You never know when that harmless farm visitor taking a pic of your goat standing on the manure pile is trying to set you up, unfortunately.

3) Theft. People have been known to come see puppies, then pull a gun and steal the entire litter. Or they may be casing out your home to see where you keep your animals and what kind of security you have so they can come back later to steal them or rob your home.

They've been having huge problems in the UK with dog thieves doing just this. And it happens here in the US as well, all too often.

I know this isn't practical with farm animals necessarily, but when someone asks me about my dogs and asks if they can come see them, I tell them that I will meet them at a local Pet Store. I bring one of my adults so they can interact with the breed, and I answer their questions/etc from there. When they ask about coming to see them in my home, I explain that due to security issues we don't allow people into our home, and I understand if that means they don't feel comfortable purchasing a pup from me. I have plenty of people lined up to buy one of my pups, so if a few of them are turned off because my home isn't open to them, oh well .

[Callieslamb]

I don't mind friends coming over but don't allow people I don't know and wouldn't have over for dinner to 'tour' the farm. Too much potential for trouble.

[o&itw]

I guess I'm getting crotchety in my old age....
Visits are by invitation only..... to friends and acquaintances. The general populous needs to take their kids to a petting zoo. It is a shame the world has come to this, but bio-security concerns, theft, PETA types, and just plain nosy people I can do without.

Sometimes, when I want to visit other people setups, it bothers me to ask them. I know they probably feel the same way as I.

[Ernie]

I don't believe I've ever had farm visitors just want to show up. A handful of people I know come and visit all the time (and we love it) but not generally strangers.

I live in farming country though. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of farms all around me. I don't know that there's a person in a hundred miles who had never seen a farm.

Though I bet very few of them have seen a farm like mine.

I like visitors though. Kids scared of animals? Not generally by the time they leave. Complaining about stepping in poop? I would laugh and laugh until my sides split open. (The terrain and plant life here generally discourage open-toed shoes unless your feet are as hard as old tree roots like mine).

I like visitors a lot. Especially families. This is a wonderful, wonderful life and I want to share it with people.

[simi-steading]

I'd let them know if they want their kids to see a farm, they need to go buy their own... If you ain't a friend or someone I know, you're not going to come tour my home.. I'd never ask someone to tour their home.. and I'd put it like that to them too...

[Bret]

Originally Posted by SueMc

We always joke (sort of) that we're going to be like the brothers on the movie "Second Hand Lion", that is, sit on the porch with shot guns across our knees to impress the visitors and salesmen.

My personal sales training movie.

[BoldViolet]

Since I live on the edge of rural and suburbia and do not yet have my own farm... is people showing uninvited to look around a common problem for those of you with farms and livestock?

[Wolfy-hound]

I've dealt with dozens of cousins who think their kids should come "see the chickens" or "play with the horse" and I dealt with them like I would a kid of mine own. If they do something wrong, I tell them not to do it again and if they disobey I punish them appropriately for the offense.

If a parent is there and a kid is doing stupid stuff, I tell the parent to either control the kid or leave.

I've had a couple people simply climb my pasture fence to go "play" with my horses. I've had friends with more livestock who've had similar things happen, where they walk out and there's strangers in the barn or pastures or yard. Apparently people can think that animals = public petting zoo and they waltz right in. Some even get irate when told to leave.

Bio-security and plain old security is a big deal. I would never allow strangers into my home. Letting strangers into a barn or with the animals could lead to some stupid bump of trip and then the idiot wants to sue you because a goat nudged them.

Plain not worth it. Friends, maybe! Random strangers, no.

[chewie]

at times i will show my animals but only on the outside of the pens/fence. any kid in the pen gets told to get out. i used to be much more happy to show them, but have since had experiences that banished that thought.

during the week of chey's passing, one neighbor came over with her 3 kids. i was looking out the window, and seen a few kids chasing my goat kids very hard. one boy in particular was having a dandy time kicking the little buckling goats 'in the nads, watch em jump!' my dad chased him off, then he went around the barn 'hey, lets make the horses run!'. this kid knows what he was doing is wrong and plenty old enough to know better, but was very obvious that no one ever tells him no. my dad then headed him off yet again, and this tme the kid scowled and told my dad, ' i don't like to be corrected!'. wow. his parents barely mumbled oh, sorry. nothing said to the kids. wow again.

i've had another boy knee my poor old goat very hard, 'she was going to run thru the gate!' i was standing right there, and took him out of the pen. he wasn't suppose to be in there anyhow, but i find kids slip into the pens faster than i can keep an eye on them. and for some reason their parents/guardians seem to think its just fine to run thru my pens, chasing the stock for 'fun'. that their little darlings should have full run of the world, that my place is a freebie fun petting zoo instead of a tiny working farm.

somehow, goats seem to get more abuse than others, they are smaller and for some reason they are seen as 'just' a goat??

so no, my animals live here and their happiness trumps some brat's 'day at the farm' bs. i even had an adult neighbor ride her horses over here with her kid, and when i came out of the house it was almost as if i was bothering her. she ignored me, seemed bugged that i interupted her fun of showing her little boy my goats. ???

if i could, i'd put up a 12ft chain link all the way around with a locked gate. it amazed me this weekend, while traveling with my horses, how many ppl at gas stations think your animals are there for their fun--walk right up and paw at them. what would they think if i did that to their kids???

[Ernie]

Originally Posted by BoldViolet

Since I live on the edge of rural and suburbia and do not yet have my own farm... is people showing uninvited to look around a common problem for those of you with farms and livestock?

I've never had it happen here in Texas, but I live fairly remote and in a very rural area.

When I lived in Illinois, our 5 acres was in a more populated area and within walking distance from a small subdivision. I would often look up and see people standing down at the road with a child and pointing at the chickens or the lambs or cow.

Whenever that happened, I made a point to hustle down to the road and invite them up for a tour, especially for the children to be able to see the animals up close and maybe pet some of the "tamer" ones. If we had extra available, I'd always send them away with some farm fresh eggs or produce from the garden.

We homesteaders always complain that city folk don't understand our way of life. We have trouble with them passing ordinances against us or clamping down on us in various ways. We like to call them "sheeple" because they neither store food nor produce it.

Just my personal opinion, but the best way to change that is to put on your most charming smile and pull these strangers in and get them on your side. Then perhaps at the next city council vote, they'll think, "That nice man down the road keeps chickens and he let my granddaughter hold one of them and then sent us home with the most delicious eggs we've ever had! I certainly don't want to vote to prevent people like him from keeping chickens!"