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Davis Farmland a ‘fantastic place’ for kids
F
rom a distance, Davis Farmland looks and sounds just
like any farm you’ll come across in Central Massachusetts. A happy soundtrack of bleating goats and baahing
sheep fills the air as you walk along the dirt paths between the
animals’ pens. Groups of spotted goats and white, wooly sheep
are easily recognizable, and a few chickens and hens run around
the grounds in between groups of children and parents.
But a closer look reveals this is not your average, everyday farm.
“Hey Mom,” a young boy says standing outside one
animal’s pen. “How do you feed this thing?”
It’s an excellent question. Sure, “this thing” is standing
on four legs behind a wire-and-post fence in front of a red
barn, and he’s got fuzzy brown fur and a short, bushy tail. But
that’s about where the familiar farm-animal landmarks end.
This thing’s unusually long neck topped off by a small head
sporting a shaggy poodle haircut makes him look like a giant,
overgrown lollipop who might look more at home co-piloting
the Millennium Falcon instead of living the life of a petting-zoo
attraction in Sterling.
Thankfully, the sign outside his pen explains everything.
His name is Wookie, he’s an alpaca, he eats grain and grass and
though he’s not a pig, he’s certainly a ham if there’s a camera
and a bunch of kids nearby. The sign also tells you that he’s
“uncommon,” which sheds a little light on the animals who call
Davis Farmland home.
“You can look at it in one of two ways,” explains Larry
Davis, who owns and operates the farm with his father John and
his brother Doug. “It’s either just a very cool farm environment
that houses the nation’s
largest collection of
endangered farm animals,
Day Tripper
or it’s a really cool
playground that also has
Emily
animals. It’s kind of got
Roche
both.”
Anyway you look
at it, Davis Farmland is
Central Massachusetts’ family destination uber-alles, offering
three major attractions under one agrarian roof.
The first is the Animal Showcase, the educational petting
zoo that is home to Wookie and dozens of other endangered
farm animals. Second is Imagine Acres, a playground for
toddlers and older children. The latest addition to the farm is the
Adventure Play and Spray, the region’s largest zero-depth water
“sprayground.” Also affiliated with the farm is the Davis Mega
Maze, a three-dimensional outdoor maze in the tall corn across
the street.
“In the spring, there are really two important opening days
in the McNally household – the Red Sox and Davis Farmland,”
says Dawn McNally of Clinton, a Hopkinton school teacher.
“It’s a fantastic place.”
McNally says she brings her sons Finn, 2 and Aidan, 1,
to Farmland almost daily in the summer -- she and her husband
Brian buy a season pass. She says the staff, which includes many
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Central Mass Magazine June 2007
Owner John Davis talks to Snickers and Pearl.
high schoolers from surrounding towns, is incredibly friendly
and interact well with the little ones.
“My kids really love it,” McNally says. “Finn is sure to tell
everyone he meets how he fed the goats, played on a train and
splashed around in the water park.”
161 years and counting
The farm has been owned and operated by the Davis
family since 1846. In the early 1990s, the farm’s focus took on
a new twist after a fire destroyed the dairy operations and the
family started to collect endangered farm animals. Their unusual
collection immediately attracted visitors, and so they decided to
re-invent the farm as a sanctuary for endangered farm animals
and a fun, relaxing place for families with small children to visit.
The uniqueness of the farm has struck a chord with visitors as
many thousands visit the farm each year.
Ensuring children’s safety on the farm was paramount
from the beginning.
“We designed the facility from a single focal point so
that you can’t lose sight of your children,” Davis says. Another
safety feature parents love is the policy that anyone who visits
the farm must have a child under 12 with them.
The farm’s central attraction is the Animal Showcase, the
petting zoo that is home to Wookie and the rest of his furry friends,
some endangered and some not. The phrase “endangered farm
animal” may seem strange at first, but, because farmers need to
breed animals that produce enough milk, meat, or wool to allow
them to make a living, animals that don’t produce enough aren’t
bred any longer and become endangered.
“The problem is that you can get into selective breeding,”
explains Davis. “It’s very important to have these living samples
[of endangered animals] because it gives us the ability to breed
back, to correct problems that they’re going to run into in the
future.”
Walking around the showcase is
a hands-on zoology lesson that is fun
for kids and educational for adults. The
animals have global, ancient origins
– according to the farm’s brochure, some
have ancestors who date back to the
Roman Empire – and are right at home
among the kids who visit them each day.
One of the rarest is Pete; a Poitou Donkey
whose dreadlock-style fur makes him
look like his ancestors should be from
Jamaica instead of southern France. Just
up the path is Pearl, another alpaca who
sometimes shares a stall with Lala the
llama, both with Peruvian origins. The
birds with the flamingo-like legs and
upside-down feather duster bodies are
Ernie and Emma, emus more commonly
found in Australia. The showcase also
hosts a variety of activities such as egg
collecting, goat milking and bottlefeeding the babies.
Even though kids could probably
spend all day in the Animal Showcase,
the playground fun to be had in Imagine
Acres is impossible for many to resist.
Plastic swings, tree houses and a pretend
village, complete with two houses, a
market and tool shed, gives kids a handson opportunity to “play farm” for a day.
And if anyone gets hungry they can have
a good lunch at the Herd Rock Calfe or
Udder Rock Calfe, cafeterias that offers
tasty food choices for people of all ages.
When you walk past the Animal
Showcase and see some giant, plastic
sunflowers and a water tower ready
to rain water down on hot kids, you’ll
know you’ve reached the Adventure
Play and Spray, the farm’s water-themed
“sprayground” where kids can splash
around and cool off after a hard day’s
play. There are two spray-pad areas, one
for toddlers and one for older children. All
of the water action in the Play and Spray
is child-controlled and activated, and it
has its own pump house that completely
sanitizes the water.
A second playground near the Play
and Spray offers more “dry” play options
such as pedal go-karts and a Dinosaur
Dig – a giant sand pit where kids can dig
for dinosaur bones. The farm also offers
other activities such as pony rides and a
hayride. Areas of the farm can be rented
for birthday parties – themes range from
making your own ’smores by a campfire
to indulging in Cupcake Mountain, a
decorate-your-own cupcakes party.
Little things set Davis Farmland
apart. Clean bathrooms are plentiful.
Most feature low-to-the ground, childsized toilets, sinks and counter tops and
picnic tables have containers filled with
hand wipes to clean sticky hands. l
Before you go
Davis Farmland is off Route 62 at
145 Redstone Hill Road, Sterling. The farm
is open seven days a week through Labor
Day, then Thursday through Sundays only
through the last weekend of October, weather
permitting (call ahead). All weather decisions
are made by 8 a.m. Admission buys entrance
into the farm’s three main areas. Adults must
be accompanied by a child 12 years old or
younger. Admission for people 2 to 59 is
$12.95 until June 15 and $14.95 from June
16 until Sept. 3, when the price goes down for
the autumn. There is no charge for children
under 2 and seniors get a reduced rate. Call
978-422-6666 or visit www.davisfarmland.
com on the Web or email info@davisfarmland.
com. In August a little bit of Vegas comes to
Sterling when the Davis Mega Maze opens
with its “Lost Vegas Maze” theme.
Contact Emily Roche at roche@
centralmassmedia.com
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Central Mass Magazine June 2007
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