Our farm gets frequent requests to host farm tours. My
husband and I typically decline the requests. It can be a lot of preparation.
It takes time away from doing our daily chores that still need to get done. Our
farm isn’t new. We don’t have the latest equipment or state-of-the-art
facilities. Our farm isn’t big. Yes, we came up with a long lists of reasons to
say no.
Now don't get me wrong- growing up, my family has participated in farm tours for decades. Growing up on my parents farm I rubbed elbows with eager young school children every Spring. Living only 20 minutes from downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, we were often the destination for students to get their first chance to visit a real, live dairy and chicken farm!
When I was younger, all my grandparents and all six of my uncle’s
families were dairy farmers. Notice I said were.
Today only about 2% of the United States population lives on a farm. Most folks
are two to three generations removed from farming.
With the decline in most people having little or no connection to farming, who is going to answer consumer questions? Who is going
to refute misinformation? Who is going to defend farmers- our farming methods,
our animal care, our supposed mistreatment of the land and our animals. So are
we going to sit back and let this bashing and misinformation continue, or are
we going to step up and tell our side of the story. And that’s how it happened.
That’s what helped my family decide to host farm tours.
I’d like to share a bit about a recent farm tour. We hosted a youth orchestra from Germany. Eighty youth and their
chaperones descended on our dairy farm. Since they were from an agricultural
area in Germany, their host organization felt they would appreciate seeing the
difference between our farming practices versus that of their homeland. Upon arrival we discovered they were from
wine country and knew very little about dairy farming.
Since there were 90 people in this tour, we broke into three groups and rotated between three stations. One was the calf barn hosted by Grandma Karen, our champion calf- raiser. She spoke about newborn calf care and feeding.
Our son Michael handled the milking station which explained cow care and the milking process.
My husband John then showed and described the feeding as
well as the crops. The students were so eager to ask questions and learn as
much as possible. And they didn’t refuse the ice cream treats at the end of the
tour either!
Our family was honored guests at the concert the youth orchestra performed that evening. I am so happy that our farm was included in their American experience.
So is it work to host farm tours? You bet. Is there preparation that needs to be done? Of course. Does it disrupt the flow of chores? Sometimes. Is it worth it? Absolutely!
