Hello! Here on the farm, summer seems to have flown by and fall will soon be here! Our Farm Animal Tour is a wonderful way to celebrate it! Tours begin in the fall of 2026. Some of you have toured our farm in the past, others of you are new to us. Please let us take a minute to explain our farm.  The Bowlander farm was started when the Bowlander family immigrated from Germany to the United States in 1863. The farm is a registered Sesquicentennial Farm in the State of Ohio, which means having the same family continuously owning the farm for over 150 years! This rich farming history combined with a love of animals is how our Educational Farm Animal Tours began!  It is our belief that every child needs to experience our “Hands-On” Animal Farm to learn about the care and habitat of farm animals. We also hope they find a new found respect of the animals. We grow grain crops and bale hay to be a self sustaining farm.  Some of our animals come here as rescues. They become part of our farm family, becoming family pets and live their whole lives here. We are proud of our animal husbandry, their health and their people friendly personalities.   We also operate Panic in the Pines Haunted Hayride in the fall.

We offer 2 Unique Tour Options to Choose From!!

OPTION ONE: Recommended for Pre-K through 3rd Grade!

Animal Tour One:

The Students interact with the full grown animals in their natural settings. The highlight of this tour is each student gets to MILK ONE OF OUR DAIRY COWS! They are live cows NOT replicas! Students feed and pet our animals including goats and sheep. They will feed some of the many chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants and peacocks that roam freely here on the farm. The children will also be able to hold bunnies, ducklings, and chicks. Our llamas eagerly await the children´s visit too! Our Observation Bee Hive will be "A-BUZZZZ" with activity for the children to see: this is where we explain why bees are so important for pollination. All along the tour the children will be taught educational and interesting facts about the animals, their habitats, and eating habits. A visit to the "Discovery Barn" allows the children to touch and feel feathers, various animal wools, fur and antlers, see and touch crops native to Ohio and Michigan. A hayride out to a field, and they also receive the famous Barrel Train Ride!

OPTION TWO: Recommended for 4th Grade and Older!

Animal Tour Two:

This tour begins with each student milking one of our REAL dairy cows! In addition to the milking, the students will then try their hand at butter making! They will get to sample the butter they have made on saltine crackers with honey at lunchtime, along with a glass of our apple cider! The tour includes meeting and greeting our grown up farm animals and learning about their natural habitats, and eating habits. At the Observation Bee Hive Station the students will learn about pollination, see the bees working and also get to learn how honey is extracted from honeycomb using a hand crack honey extractor. The students will press apples into cider using an 1890´s press (as in the olden days, before automated equipment). A "Producers to Consumers" session teaches about the many different ways we market our crops. They will then head back to the "Discovery Barn" to view and identify major crops of Ohio and Michigan, as well as animal items.

Lunch Area:

We have a lovely area inside the barn for lunch and snacks. It is decorated for the season. We can heat the area if the weather is chilly. The Candy and Snack Shop is open at lunch time. The items range from chips, candies, pop, water and coffee.

Restrooms:

The farm has flushable restroom and handwashing station. All of our Tour Leaders carry hand sanitizer for the students to use at each station.

Rain Days:

Rain days... do happen. If we feel the rain is too heavy for the students (and adults) to still enjoy and have an enriching learning experience, we will cancel the tour. HOWEVER, with light rain, we always leave it up to your team teachers. We DO automatically cancel if there is HEAVY RAIN and/or LIGHTNING for obvious safety reasons. If you must cancel a tour for any reason, other than weather, you MUST CALL by 9 AM the day of the tour or your school will be charged a $50.00 no show fee.

Tour Costs:

STUDENTS ARE $10.00 each per tour.

EACH TEACHER IS FREE!

ANY ADDITIONAL CHAPERONES are $10.00 each

We do take school check, cash, purchase orders (if necessary, you MUST have PO# with you on the Tour Day), and credit cards. We ask that you have ALL PAYMENTS, including additional chaperone money, ready when you arrive. This saves valuable tour time!

Tour Length:

We can complete a tour in 1-2 hours, if necessary. HOWEVER, we PREFER to schedule your tour base on the amount of time you have to give us! The average tour is 2.5-3 hours! The longer the better, we will fill the time!

WE WANT THIS TO BE A FUN, LEISURELY LEARNING EXPERIENCE!

In order to for your groups to enjoy all the activities at our farm, we ask that you be punctual on your arrival time! We are also taking reservations for spring 2026!

BOOKING DATES AN TIMES ARE FILLED ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS, SO BOOK EARLY!

Please call Melissa at: (419) 461-1298 for info to make reservations.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SHARING OUR FARM WITH YOU!!!

The Bowlander Family