On-farm education for children and farm tours to improve image of beef production

 

The good practice was trialled on a farm with a herd of approximately 40 simmenthaler cows as well as a herd of sheep, some goats and fattening pigs. The farm has it's own slaughter house and sells all of the meat in an own shop.   The farmer participated in a training for experiential education. After finishing this training she now offers yearly courses for children. In these courses the children visit the farm on several afternoons during the year. On these afternoons a variety of group activities take place as planting seeds, collecting fruits but also feeding the animals, learning about the life of a farm animal and observing the harvest of animal feed like grass silage and corn. Thus the children get a realistic picture about the food chain, correlations on a beef farm and they learn to worship foods of animal origin as they get to know the whole journey from birth to shop counter. This is a perfect way of implementing a positive image of farms early in life of the children. Apart from the yearly courses for children the farm offers tours for groups of children and grown-ups. On these tours they can visit the whole farm, learn about the life of and work with the farm animals to get a view "behind the scenes" of the production of their meat.