Last Updated on 15 April 2024 by Colette
Smithills Open Farm near Bolton is, at it’s heart, a dairy farm and as such cows feature heavily in any visit! From hand-feeding the calves to watching them being milked, if you’re a fan of cows like our Amy, then Smithills Farm is a great place to visit. And, even if cows aren’t your thing then there’s still a wide variety of other animals to see – basically anything you’d expect on a farm – pigs, horses, goats, sheep and some you wouldn’t – like meerkats, snakes, wallabies and owls!
We’ve been to Smithills Farm so many times in the last few years and think it’s a really lovely day out – with that in mind, I wanted to share fourteen things to do at Smithills Open Farm.
(This post was originally published June 2019 but has been updated June 2022 after our most recent visit!)
It’s worth noting that your visit to Smithills Open Farm must be pre-booked online – walk ins are no longer allowed.
1. Watch the cows be milked
Watching the cows being milked is Amy’s favourite thing to do at Smithills Open Farm – the herd is currently around 400 cows strong with 130 being milked three times a day – producing on average 11 litres of milk each per milking session.
Since our last visit, Smithills Farm have installed a new milking parlour (this is at the bottom end of the main cow shed where the robot milking machine used to be). The new set up allows Farmer Carl and the team to milk 20 cows at a time whilst keeping a track of exactly how much milk each of the girls is producing.
When we first arrived at Smithills and Amy realised that the milking set up had changed, she was a bit gutted as she had loved watching Farmer Carl milk the cows the old fashioned way.
However she soon realised that the new system meant she got to watch three times as many cows be milked and actually had a better view of what was going on! Milking starts at 1pm and goes on till around 2.30pm – you don’t have to be there for the start, in fact you’ll probably find that the parlour is at its busiest at 1pm but most people will only watch the first 20 cows be milked and then move on so you’ll find the parlour quieter as the milking session goes on. That said, on our most recent visit, Amy watched the cows be milked for a full two hours – chatting to Carl, Beth and Emily about the cows as they worked. They were all really lovely and happy to chat about how the cows are cared for and answer all of our questions (I know far more about dairy cows now than I could have ever imagined I would need to!)
2. Ride one of the Smithills Farm donkeys!
Donkey rides are available at Smithills Farm throughout the day. You will need to purchase a ticket from Reception – rides cost £1.50 and take just a few minutes. There is a height limit for this and on our most recent visit we found Amy is now too tall for donkey rides at Smithills – if you’re not sure I’d suggest popping along to see the donkeys and checking out the height chart before you buy a ticket.
3. Feed the lambs in Pets’ Corner
A highlight of any trip to Smithills Farm is feeding the lambs in Pets’ Corner – the staff hand out bottles of milk and then the lambs are released into the room. And when I say released, I really do mean released! They come careering round the corner ready for their milk so it can be a bit overwhelming for little ones (especially if the lambs are quite big like they were on our most recent visit!) The lambs can be quite strong so you do need to keep tight hold of those bottles!
4. Spot the poo machine
Yes this is really a thing! The “R2 Clean Poo” is an automated barn cleaner which makes it’s way around the barn, scraping all the cow poo down the slatted floor keeping the barn fresh and clean (well as fresh and clean as any barn with so many cows in could be!) Amy loves being able to spot it helping to look after her beloved cows!
5. Have a picnic
Although Smithills Farm serve a range of hot and cold foods in their on site cafe, they also have plenty of picnic tables and an outdoor play area so we usually just take a picnic! We’ve never struggled to find anywhere to sit and you can always leave your picnic in the car to save you lugging it around.
6. Take a tractor ride
This is something we’ve never actually got round to doing at Smithills Farm but you can buy tickets at Reception to take a ride in the trailer of a big tractor and see the farm from a different view! Tractor rides are usually hourly and cost £1.50 per person.
7. Feed the animals
Bags of feed can be bought at reception and cost 50p. Many of the animals at Smithills Farm can be fed by hand including the cows, goats and sheep. Some of the animals (such as the pigs and horses) shouldn’t be fed but there are clear signs up so you know when you can and can’t feed the animals. (There are plenty of places around the farm with hot running water and soap to make sure that hands are thoroughly cleaned after feeding and handling the animals.)
8. Play on the indoor bouncy castle
For those days when the weather isn’t so kind, there is a barn filled with toys and inflatables to let your little one burn off some steam! This is really set up for the younger guests – with Little Tykes cars etc but all three of our children still love a bouncy castle!
9. Touch a snake
I mean this isn’t personally top of my list of things to do but you can touch a snake if you want to along with a whole host of other animals in Pet’s Corner including an owl, a donkey and rabbits to name but a few.
10. Hold the baby animals
As part of the Pet’s Corner experience, you can handle a range of baby animals from stroking young donkeys or alpacas to holding chicks and rabbits! Amy always loves the idea of this but then panics when the opportunity arises!
11. Play on the farm-themed play area
A well thought out play area is always a welcome bonus on a day out – especially if it means that I can sit down and chat with a friend whilst the kids tire themselves out! The play area at Smithills Farm is, as you’d expect, farm-themed and has a range of climbing equipment to suit all ages as well as spring rockers and a number of slides. The play area has seen significant updates since our last visit and we were really impressed at how much more there was to play on – the only downside is that there is now a fence all the way around the play area that means you can’t see the kids from the picnic area and have to stand inside the play area to supervise little ones.
12. Bottle feed the calves
The calves at Smithills Farm are fed three times a day – early in the morning, lunch time and late evening. You can help with the lunchtime feed – this takes place at about 12pm and you can tell when it’s time as they all start shouting loudly for their milk! The calf we fed was just a week old so she was a little shy to start with. Amy has never been brave enough to feed the calves before and needed a bit of encouragement this time but just look at her little face – I’m so glad she gave it a go.
This is a really popular activity and because it only happens once a day, you will likely have to share your bottle of milk with other families.
13. Buy some Smithills Farm milk
Amy was super excited to buy a litre of milk from the onsite shop – it cos £2 for a litre but if you take the bottle back you get your next bottle for £1. We had it for breakfast this morning and it was absolutely delicious – if we were a little bit closer I’d definitely be getting it delivered! The milk is so fresh that Carl told us what we’d seen be milked today, would be on someone’s doorstep tomorrow!
14. Enjoy some Smithills Ice Cream!
As well as being able to buy tubs of Smithills ice cream to take away, you can also treat yourself to an ice cream during your visit – you can buy ice cream in the snack shop near the play area and donkeys, or you can pop to Smithills Milk & Ice Creamery which is next to the car park and actually means you can pop in for an ice cream or to buy other Smithills produce (including milk, butter and eggs) without visiting the farm itself.
Ice cream flavours were running low on our most recent visit but I definitely recommend the cherry ripple and Chloe said her classic vanilla was lush!
There’s so much to do at Smithills Open Farm that you can easily fill your day and not have covered everything (especially if you spend two hours watching the cows be milked!) You don’t even need to wait for a sunny day – you might think a farm wouldn’t be the best idea for a rainy day activity but with so many indoor attractions, Smithills Farm is definitely worth considering.
If you’re looking for farms to visit in the North of England, here are ten farms to visit near Manchester or you can find a list of places to see cows near Manchester here!
Check out our Ultimate Guide to Easter here!
Cool things to do in Manchester this summer
What’s on this May half term in Manchester
Where to go alpaca walking near Manchester
What’s on near Manchester this Open Farm Sunday?
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