It's always a thrill opening the gates to our farms, showing people around and exposing them to new experiences.
This one was a bit different to our normal events as it was all about rural-urban connection. Close to 200 people came from the more urban parts of Canterbury to visit Eyrewell Dairy Unit as part of the NZ Open Farms initiative run across the motu on Sunday March 10.
Farm Manager Mahraaz Hussein said his farm team and volunteers from other Pāmu farms had really enjoyed showing people around.
“It was really cool to see a diverse bunch of people come to see us, and especially heaps of kids who were really curious, especially about milking the cows. The kids had some great questions and everyone was keen to get a trailer ride on the farm, get to see the milking shed in action, and some even found the rare Canterbury Grass Skink in our habitat restoration paddock.
"Our team is proud of how we look after our farm and our animals and it’s great to show people who might not get a chance to get on farm normally, and help them to get a better understanding of what we do here.”
We were also grateful of the support from Synlait and DairyNZ. Ross and Heather (DairyNZ) did a great job of running the gumboot toss and handing out goodie bags to excited kids. And Angie and her team from Synlait cooked hundreds of sausages throughout the day to keep the visitors well fed.
Community connection is important to us so being able to share a rural experience with our urban friends always makes us happy. We know that everyone who attended enjoyed themselves and will have come away knowing a little bit more about life on a dairy farm.
