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Mountain Flower Goat Dairy is an urban farm just minutes from downtown Boulder. But don’t be fooled by its small size and city feel: You can entertain kids—both human and goat—for hours. Here are five reasons why you should put a visit to this working dairy farm on your summer to-do list:
You can walk goats on leashes.
Yes, you read that right. Goats at Mountain Flower have kids in early spring, and they love to go for walks around the farm. They’re all a couple of months old now, but no less hungry for attention.
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You can bottle-feed baby goats.
Even though they’re grazing on the grass in their pen, young goats still need milk. At noon on Saturdays, you can help the staff bottle-feed the babies. You can watch a milking demonstration, too, if you arrive a little earlier.
Baby goats will climb all over you and chew your hair.
Maybe the hair-chewing is more slimy than fun, but it’s hard to be mad at such cuddly animals. If you sit down on the ground in the pen with the babies and wait patiently for just a few minutes, the smallest goats will almost certainly climb all over you. Watch your pockets! They’re sneaky, and they’re not shy about sticking their noses into open bags or pockets.
You can teach the kids about farming.
One of Mountain Flower’s goals is to teach people about sustainable agriculture and let them interact with it. That’s why it’s far more than just a petting zoo. Staff will patiently answer all your questions about their farming practices, and how you can raise your own livestock, too. “This is livestock you can interact with,” says Michael Montgomery, the farm’s director. Mountain Flower wants to teach people about humane treatment of animals, how to make sure they have good, healthy lives, and how goats interact with the land. Here, the goats act as living lawnmowers, trimming the grass as they graze and tilling and fertilizing the soil, which helps grow healthier crops.
You can bring a goat home with you.
You may not be able to show up, pick out a goat, and head home with it, but you can buy baby goats from Mountain Flower if you plan ahead. It is legal to have goats in both Denver and Boulder city limits, but do your research first, as there are some restrictions.
If you go: Visiting hours are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays through the end of June, and on the first Saturday of the month from July to October. Mountain Flower is a nonprofit that relies on donations, so consider donating $5 as an individual or $20 for a family.
