How to Open a Play Farm
Since the joke in which the teacher asks the student: “Where does the milk come from?” and the student answers: “How easy! Milk comes from the supermarket” there was a general awareness that children need to have more contact with Nature, even if it is the one contained in the perimeter of a farm. Thus, the proposal to open a Fun Farm arises as a profitable business option due to the receptivity that their proposal has.
Recommendations of a Ludic Farm
In order to recommend this original business, we must first know what the proposal is that is implicit in opening a Fun Farm:
Milking: Whether it’s cows or goats, the idea is to witness and perform the task of milking with one’s own hands. Although today this activity is carried out with machinery for this purpose, the aim of opening a recreational farm is that people can go back to their origins, or also that they do what many artisan farms do nowadays.
Making cheese: it is very interesting that those who visit the farm can see and participate in the process of making cheese and receive an explanation about the different types of cheese and their production and maturing processes. It is also very useful to give them ideas about how to use each one of them.
Animal feeding: each animal needs a different ration and type of food. When opening a Fun Farm, visitors will be involved in the feeding process of each corral: pigs, rabbits, birds, cattle, horses, and cows and will be given an informative talk about this process and why each species needs different food.
Walks: in the case of having horses, the walks will be done riding them, in case of not having them, guided walks will be organized with specific purposes to show certain parts of the landscape and teach something about it, either geography or any topic related to farm life.
Taste: after having listened to interesting classes and worked all morning, it is time to taste a delicious roast meat accompanied by other meat and vegetable products from the farm.
Public of a Playful Farm
There are many ways to exploit this booming business. The important thing is to determine which audience I will focus on and then design proposals for each of them. The good thing is that I can choose one type of audience or several, only that the activities should be organized separately, either in hours or days, but never mix children with tourists, for example. Here are some proposals:
Tourism: organize excursions and divide the groups in two ages, one of them adults and the other seniors. According to each group, you will organize more or less participative activities.
Didactic: as a complement to school teaching, Opening a Fun Farm can be a great idea of academic instruction, combined with games according to the space of the farm.
Requirements for a Fun Farm
There must be a space located on the outskirts of the city or, failing that, an open space where farm animals can be housed and land can be cultivated, so that there is a physical platform where the business can be undertaken.
Acquire animals, either young or adult to start the business, among these animals can be, cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, poultry such as ducks, geese, that children can feed and touch because it is a recreational farm, which in addition to making production has the purpose of recreating visitors.
The most common animals to undertake production on the farm are cows, to collect milk and to reproduce. Also the hens and chickens to collect the eggs and multiply them as well as, the pigs to fatten and acquire white meat for consumption.
Tips to start
First of all, it is advisable to start small if you do not know the trade, so that you can learn to have a playful farm, growing progressively until you become very successful.
Likewise, you can acquire young cows and chickens that are easy to maintain at the beginning, which allows you to gain experience and the necessary knowledge to maintain the adult cattle and get the most out of them.
Plan and open the farm to the public by expanding the business with recreational activities for children and family, as well as interaction with the animals.
Consolidate contracts for sales of cow’s milk and meat, so that profits can be made for the farm, if there is enough production to negotiate a possible expansion of the business.
Advantages of having a Fun Farm
One advantage is that a recreational and leisure space can be offered to parents with children, who come to the farm to spend the day interacting with the animals and
the natural spaces of the farm.
In addition, you always have direct access to totally natural food, and the constant satisfaction and benefits of permanent service. It also represents a saving in consumption, being able to divert these funds into other investments, such as mobile units to support the farm and the opening of spaces for recreation, as well as investment in the acquisition of more animals and inputs.
This business model is one of the ones that has more contact with nature, so the farmer learns to be self-sustainable at all times, which means that their quality of life is never affected in the possible times of crisis that may occur throughout the history of countries, making the business a multi-generational one, that is, the trade can be passed on to children and grandchildren.
Success stories
Granja D’Aventura Park, is a farm-park where you can spend a day of remembrance with your family, in direct contact with nature. The children have the opportunity to interact with and even feed the pigs, chickens, rabbits, donkeys, sheep, turkeys and ducks that live at the Farm and have interesting experiences.
The children can also plant their own seeds in the fruit and vegetable garden in the park and learn about organic farming. The farm also has a space for leisure and recreation in which, for the more daring little ones, a playful space awaits with ample entertainment in the zip line park, which has an adventure circuit in the trees with different levels of difficulty and various routes.
Problems that may arise
One of the problems it faces is the problem of environmental health and hygiene. This requires attention to the sanitary conditions of the farm, otherwise you can get unwanted diseases as a result of poor management.
This refers to the cleaning of animal faeces, maintenance of the pigsty if you have pigs and the constant attention that the animals require in addition to the vaccines to keep the animals healthy so that when you drink milk directly from the cow or consume its meat, they do not contain diseases that can lead even in the death of users.
This is a hard work, which requires strength and enthusiasm every day, their earnings are safe, but you must have patience, and know that the farm has two objectives one is the recreation to visitors with children to interact with the animals and the other related to production. Therefore, carelessness, lack of attention and management, prevents the growth of the farm, bringing as a consequence, delays in production for consumption and self-support of the same.