dakin dairy farms

When we first heard the price of the tour it seemed like a lot but we learned so much even though we have a farm background. The lady who was the tour guide was very informative and fun besides. You get to see cows being milked, feed a baby calf, learn how skim and 2 % milk is made, take a hay wagon ride around the farm to see how it operates, make butter and have wonderful chocolate milk for snacks. A real family business

Great place to experience a dairy farm and great products to try. Great place for lunch out on the deck with some wonderful homemade ice cream! Take the kids and feed the goats. Unique gifts too!

attended a children's birthday party at the farm. It is a large working dairy farm which is also set up for children's parties. The personnel are friendly, lots for the kids to do,including hay ride, tractor ride with small cars for each child. The kids get to feed goats,baby cows, and ducks. There are tire swings, dirt piles, shark tooth search and a nice open pavilion to stay out of the weather. All & all a good place for a kids party, certainly unique.

A little expensive but kids can learn a lot and have fun with the animals.I took my 3 months old and he was happy to see the pigs. Great for a home-school field trip.

recently started working there as the hayride driver/maintenance guy, wenton thr mock tour and was amazed at what Jackie & Kat taught me, I had no clue on some things, all in all a great time and great learning experience

This farm is adorable! They have so much to see and do...and the tour is timed perfectly, and interactive too. We got to see the process of milking cows, bottling the milk, and how the cows are taken care of. During the tour there's a hay ride, duck feeding, and pig races! We got to feed a baby calf (Rocky was his name), and do an interactive scavenger hunt to get to the prize at the end. It was a bit chilly out when we visited, so we ordered our picnic lunch, and sat by the fire pit, and toasted marshmallows. There are wooden swings and slides for the kids to play on, a hay maze, and a huge sand pile with shells and fossils for the kids to dig up. You pay one entrance price, and the tour and outdoor events are all free. You'd have to pay for food, but that's expected. It's a quaint, self sufficient farm, and definitely worth a day trip. Try the chocolate milk....you'll end up bringing some home!

Dakin Diary Farms is a great place - and reasonable place to take to kids to enjoy the outdoors. The kids loved the hay ride, pig races and feeding the goats. The playground was nice a laid back~ my only comment would be the largest of the three slides the sand area at the bottom is lacking so the slide is nearly straight down which was a little dangerous. The owners are hands on so I am sure it will be fixed shortly.

only dairy in Florida to offer tours. the tour teaches you about the cows, feeding, milking,birthing,etc. they have a picnic area with a fossil dig for the kids. they have a hay ride, small petting zoo, farmers market and souvenir shop. They offer birthday parties for the kids and have a festival in the fall.

Dakin Dairy Farms is a great place to take your family and spend an awesome day. You should go to the store first and get tickets for the tour ($12.00 per adult), not sure about kids. Then your guide will take you to see how the cows are bathed first, then milked, then she will show you the process of storing, pasteurizing and bottling the milk with a short film plus a tour of that part of the facility. Afterwards you will go on a great hay ride, enjoy the outdoors and the little ones can feed the ducks during a hay ride stop. You will also see pig races, how to make butter, feeding the calves for the kids and petting them. You will have an opportunity to taste their milk and their chocolate milk (delicious) as well as their tomato soup. Don't miss the great menu at the farm store, it is to die for. A gorgeous day at the farm and fun for all ages. Nearby is the Lippizan's horses show and/or practice.. not to be missed either if you have the time.

We drove only a half hour out of Sarasota, taking our six-year old grandson who's interested in farm animals as well as learning facts about everything, but it was a great idea for this perfectly wonderful afternoon spent at Dakin Dairy Farm, the only dairy farm open to the public in the state of Florida! It was a gentle time of learning about how mostly Holstein and a few Jersey cows are milked and kept clean, as well as getting facts on the type of milk they give and how it is prepared and pasteurized for sale to the public. There was a quick tour of the facility as and after the milk is collected. One can physically see that the cows are treated well and are happy to produce milk! There's a nice hay ride pulled by a tractor, where we saw how the cows' feed is prepared, as well as seeing some of the farm equipment and the green pasture fields. We also met some happy ducks (feed bags are $1) and saw an array of Sandhill cranes in the field and lots of cattle egrets, too, perched above the cattle feed. There's a young pig race to get to the feed, as well as an excellent opportunity for children to personally feed a bottle of milk to the hungry but polite calves and then pet them afterwards. We also enjoyed learning how they make butter from their own heavy cream and then got a taste of it on crackers, washed down by cups of their own delicious chocolate milk. Our grandson even got a chance to feed adventurous goats,($1 per bag) as well as seeing a sheep and gopher tortoise. There are gorgeous old live oak trees draped in Spanish moss acting as a beautiful canopy to the hill of sand areas for children to play or dig for fossils. This farm is a great opportunity for children to run, (as long as you supervise them) to get out that excess energy! It's also good to remember that a farm is a home for animals, so you may want to discuss with the kids that some animal behavior (pooping wherever they want) and some unpleasant odors are perfectly natural-before you arrive! A real treat was buying and eating the wonderful ice cream afterwards our tour (from the office/store/gift shop), which we,enjoyed while sitting in comfy rocking chairs and at picnic tables on the shaded front porch. Many of their terrific dairy products are also for sale. Of course, we had to take some of that chocolate milk home to remember our delightful afternoon spent at Dakin Dairy Farm near Myakka City. Take the kids, the grandparents or just go on your own; we can highly recommend this attraction! Only downside: most of the barn, milking parlor and view of the milk processing area from upstairs is not handicapped accessible, unless you only walk with a cane. .

Fun tour starts with a trip to the barns to learn a bit about dairy cows and the process of going from the barns to the milking area. A short film in the bottling area and then on to a hay ride around the facility. Pig races, feeding the calves and then to making butter and a milk sampling. Fun play area for the kids. The birthday parties seemed to be very popular. Nice gift shop and food available for purchase. A fun way to spend part of the day!

Decided to visit Dakin Dairy Farms on our trip to Tampa after reading about it on Trip Advisor. It was about an hour drive, but it was worth it... We were not disappointed! We took the tour which was first a walking tour through the facility starting with seeing the cows relaxing and went through the entire milk making process through packaging (the entire tour was about an hour and a half but was so informative and actioned packed that it went very quickly). Our guide was very knowledgable and being that we visited on a working day, we got to see every part of the process actually taking place. We then proceeded to the hayride where we drove through the farm and fed the ducks. The pig race was fun to watch and even our 2 year old was able to assist in bottle feeding the calves. We then made our own butter and got to sample the butter and the delicious Dakin milk. After the tour our family had a picnic (the pulled pork sandwiches were delicious, as was the sweet tea. And i should mention that the prices for lunch and the tour were very reasonable). Our daughter loved sitting at a picnic table very close to the goats to eat lunch. After lunch, we fed the goats and played on the tire swings. To end our day at the farm we had a cow patty which was 2 chocolate chip cookies filled with our choice of ice cream. Great way to end a perfect family day!

Took the tour this past weekend, this was my first time here. EXCELLENT tour, educational and fun. Would definitely do it again! Bring the kids they will love it (so will the adults). Saw cows (pigs, chicken, ducks and goats also) what a fantastic day.

I love it. This is a awesome place to visit. feeding the calves, hay rides, pig races , making butter is so awesome.

I went to Dakin with a school group. It was very educational and the staff was very friendly and handled all of the children with organization and ease ( about 100 went with our school)It was so much fun! They have a great playground and eating area, petting zoo, pig races, feeding calves with a bottle, hay ride and watching the homogenizing, pasteurizing, bottling process.It couldn't have been better. Cute store with fresh milk and gifts. Milk tasting as well.