FEATURES
The Traveling Barnyard

by Marcia Passos Duffy

Farmer takes lessons of agriculture on the road

Ruth Scruton of Farmingham, N.H., comes from a long line of farmers that date back to 1738. Eleven generations of her family have farmed on the same land that surrounds Blue Job Mountain in Stafford County, N.H.

The Traveling Barnyard is sometimes a child’s only exposure to agriculture, says owner Ruth Scruton. Photos by Marcia Passos Duffy.

However, not one ancestor has done what Scruton is now engaged in. She has packed up some of her animals and taken her farm on the road. She is the owner of “The Traveling Barnyard,” an interactive educational agricultural display that trailers a menagerie of farm animals to visit schools, day care centers, nursing homes, community events and fairs.

She created The Traveling Barnyard because she feels that the public has lost touch with agriculture.

A lost sense of agriculture

“The general public has lost a sense of where their food comes from,” said Scruton, who was inspired to start The Traveling Barnyard after her youngest son told her of a school trip to a farm where he was the only child who knew what the “daddy pig” was called.

Scruton first envisioned her farm educational center based on her farm, but it quickly evolved to a traveling farm when she realized there was a niche—and income to be made—from taking her show on the road.

A 4H leader for the past 30-plus years, a fiber artist and a farmer, Scruton developed her barnyard on the road after her divorce, which left her as a stay-at-home mom raising four children on a small farm (with 100 head of small livestock, along with flocks of chickens, ducks, guinea fowl and peacocks). She was already taking some of her animals to a children’s “friendly farm” at the Rochester Fair, but financial necessity led her to start the Traveling Barnyard business in 2001.

“My options at that point were to either give up farming or incorporate what I already knew into a new business, and make my farm sustainable,” said Scruton.

Ruth Scruton’s Traveling Barnyard travels to a variety of organizations, including nursing homes. Residents enjoy interacting with Ruth’s friendly goats and sheep.

Largest income on farm

The Traveling Barnyard is now the business that is keeping her farm sustainable. “It makes the largest income,” she said, adding that she offers fiber arts classes at the farm in the winter and makes extra products (such as felted ornaments) that are sometimes sold on the road. “It is a very diversified agriculture farm,” said Ruth.

While the Traveling Barnyard is the largest income on the farm, she said that it took a few years to get to that point. “There are not many jobs opportunities for a traveling barnyard out there—and most want you to come out for free,” she said.

Parties, fairs and more

Scruton has done a variety of events with her traveling barnyard of 20 small sheep and goats, plus poultry and waterfowl. The animals are displayed in a separate pen where participants can interact with the animals. In another, noninteractive pen, she displays a few larger animals, such as a llama, an alpaca, a calf or a mini-donkey.

“I’ve done children’s birthday parties, open houses, company events, conservation groups, schools, old home days, nativity scenes, Christmas tree farms, apple festivals and even a party for one man celebrating his one year out of a nursing home,” said Ruth.

Ruth has partnered with a local marketing firm that books events for her.

What it takes to run an interactive farm

Ruth’s Traveling Barnyard takes about 20 minutes to set up. She owns two trailers in case she double-books; at that point, she hires one of her adult children to run the second event. “The trailer can be operated with one person depending on the event,” she said. An event with large crowds or many small children, such as a fair, may require an extra hand to keep an eye on the interactions between the animals and participants.

Scruton’s season starts in December with live nativity scenes for local church groups during the holiday season. She also participates in February’s Farm & Forest Show in Manchester, N.H. Her touring begins in earnest in April when her regular clients—schools, community groups, municipalities and businesses—book her Traveling Barnyard annually. “The regular clients are what stabilize this business for me,” she said.

Ruth Scruton with her Traveling Barnyard demonstrating goat milking to a group of school children.

She is careful not to characterize what she does as a petting farm or zoo, she said, and is strict about making sure that the interactive educational component of her events are the main goal.

The hard facts of agricultural life

While Scruton is passionate about educating the visitors, she is sensitive to the fact that not everyone wants to know where their meat comes from.

“The general public has humanized animals to the point where they can’t see what they produce for us,” she said. “There is a huge disconnect in the population.”

That humanizing of animals is even found in sustainable products, such as eggs. “Some see the egg laid by a chicken as a baby bird, not as an egg to eat,” she said. “This is not only true for children, but also for many adults.”

Many schools Scruton works with want to emphasize the sustainable gifts from the animals, but don’t want the discussion of slaughter to come up. While she is respectful of that, she feels she needs to be honest about her animals.

“My barnyard is filled more with fiber animals than meat animals because of my love of working with fiber arts, so it is not a good representation of commercial agriculture,” she admitted. “But, we do make animal [meat] products from our animals … if I didn’t I’d be overrun with goats and sheep. While this is a farm exhibition, it is still a working farm and I don’t hide that fact,” she said.

“People need to have the connection to their food sources because we need agricultural land and a strong farm community in order to have food to feed people … farmers often fight a losing battle to keep on farming.”

Children, particularly those in urban areas, are losing their agricultural roots quickly, even in what has been considered the rural areas of the Northeast. Scruton hopes that, in her small way, she is contributing to helping keep farming alive—both for farmers and for those who have little connection with farms.

“As we urbanize more there will be more interest in seeing farm animals up close,” she said. “At times, the Traveling Barnyard is a child’s only exposure to agriculture … it is important that it is a good experience for them.”

The author is a freelance writer from Keene, N.H. Comment or question? Visit www.farmingforumsite.com and join in the discussions.