Bringing the farm to the people

LITCHFIELD, Minn. — By the time sisters Alison and Ruby Radunz graduated from 4-H, they had accumulated rabbits and multiple varieties of poultry in addition to the farm family’s dairy cattle, goats and sheep.

“We always enjoyed educating the public and talking to different people about our animals,” said Pam, their mom. “It stemmed from there that we could open a petting zoo. We love to take animals to places and show people our animals.”

The three decided to open a mobile petting zoo at Radunz Family Farms since they already had a multitude of animals to educate others. Pam and her husband, Larry, milk 65 cows and raise goats near Hutchinson, while Alison lives on Pam’s home farm near Litchfield, raising sheep, poultry, a donkey and potbelly pigs. Alison also shows and sells chicks to youth to exhibit at county and state shows in addition to selling the eggs.

Pam, Alison and Ruby each hold full-time jobs off the farm, but work at both farms as much as they can. Pam works at a nursing home, Alison is an occupational therapy assistant and Ruby is an agricultural education teacher at Atwater Cosmos Grove City School.

Alison and Ruby represent the sixth generation of their mom’s family to farm. Although the farms have changed over the years, the dedication to agriculture has not.

“It’s fun to think about how things have changed,” Alison said. “This barn was built with wood from the trees behind the house. It’s great to see both farms still in the family. We have to evolve with the times to be sustainable.”

Growing up on the farm, the sisters, besides being active in 4-H, also were part of FFA and served as county dairy princesses. In doing so, they said they developed a passion for educating others about agriculture.

“We do this for the education part of it,” she said. “I am an agricultural education teacher and all of my students live in these rural communities and yet many of them don’t know much about agriculture.”

The biggest surprises the Radunzes said they have had throughout the process are the questions and comments at events.

“We have a lot of people that don’t know the difference between a sheep and a goat or a hen and a rooster,” Pam said. “People just don’t know because they aren’t exposed to this on a regular basis.”

Ruby’s last year in 4-H was in 2021 and the family officially opened the petting zoo in the summer of 2023.

“I would randomly bring animals to work,” Pam said. “The residents’ faces would light up and they would talk about their memories of growing up on a farm. We started bringing the animals to a couple more places and it became a side gig for us.”

The Radunz family brings their animals to nursing homes, birthday parties and community events, including multi-day events such as Nelson Farm Pumpkin Patch Festival, Turks Trees, a Christmas tree farm, and the Forest City Threshers Show.

Going into their third season as a mobile petting zoo, the Radunzes already have 10 events booked in addition to the multi-day events in the fall.

This spring, the Radunz family hosted an on-farm photo session around Easter for visitors to get pictures taken with the animals by a local professional photographer.

In preparation to start their petting zoo, the Radunz women contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture about the rules and regulations of operating a petting zoo.

“Because we are a working farm, we can only bring farm animals, then we do not need an official license,” Pam said. “If we wanted to bring rabbits or more exotic animals we would need to be licensed.”

Leading up to the summer, Ruby works with the dairy calf and Pam works with the goats to get them used to being petted and being around people. Alison spends extra time with the chickens, ducks, sheep, donkey and pig to also get them ready.

“We have some bottle lambs so they are naturally more docile,” Alison said. “For the chickens, we select the more docile breeds so they are naturally calmer.”

Depending on the event, the Radunz team selects younger or older animals. They keep a selection of each species in a separate pen at home to keep them cleaner and easier to load up when heading to events.

“We also bring feed with to the events to keep the animals calm and allow people to feed them,” Pam said. “By the time the summer is done, our fainting goats barely faint because they are so used to people and being handled.”

The Radunzes offer four sizes of petting zoos, depending on the size of the event, which animals are included and whether it is indoors. They also bring a large tarp and kitty litter to all indoor events.

“If we take it to families, we are reaching the parents and the kids,” Ruby said. “It’s fun to see how many kids and adults are scared at first of the animals, but eventually they come inside the pen and stay for quite a while with the animals.”

The trio brings fact sheets about each animal species to the events.

“That information just blows the parents away,” Pam said.

Providing education to the general public is the driving force to the Radunz endeavor.

“This is more than just interacting with the animals; it’s also the education side,” Alison said.