What Is Care Farming?

How Care Farming Works

Care farming does not depend on a single activity, animal, or prescribed outcome. Its value comes from the relationship among several parts of the farm experience:

Meaningful activity

Farm work has a visible purpose. Animals need food and clean shelter. Gardens need water. Fences need repair. Eggs need to be collected. When a co-farmer completes a task, the result is real and often immediately apparent.

Research into care farming has repeatedly identified useful work, responsibility, achievement, skill development, and feeling valued as important parts of the participant experience.

Connection with nature

Farms follow natural rhythms. Seasons change, plants grow, animals establish routines, and the weather influences each day’s work.

Spending time outdoors and participating in the care of living things can provide a different experience from one centered on classrooms, offices, treatment rooms, or screens. The farm offers room to move, observe, participate, rest, and reconnect with the world beyond ourselves.

Connection with animals

Animals can help create opportunities for responsibility, patience, trust, observation, and nonverbal connection. Caring for another living being also makes the work matter beyond the person performing it.

At the same time, care farming is broader than interaction with animals. Gardens, crops, soil, conservation, maintenance, food production, and the social life of the farm are equally important parts of the model. Research examining animals on care farms suggests that useful work, relationships with animals, and the freedom to interact at an appropriate level must be balanced according to the needs and preferences of each participant.

Connection with other people

Farm tasks often happen alongside other people without requiring constant conversation or formal social exercises. Co-farmers may work together, ask for help, share what they know, or simply enjoy being present with others.

Studies of care farming commonly describe social relationships, belonging, acceptance, and a nonjudgmental environment as meaningful parts of the experience.

Routine and flexibility

Farms provide natural structure because certain responsibilities must be completed each day. Within that structure, however, there can be room for personal choice.

A co-farmer may feel ready to take on a substantial project one day and prefer a quieter activity the next. Both can be meaningful contributions.

Common Care-Farming Activities

Activities vary according to the season, weather, needs of the farm, abilities and interests of participants, and the animals currently living at the farm.

Care-farming activities may include:

• Feeding, watering, and caring for animals

• Collecting eggs

• Cleaning stalls, shelters, and animal areas

• Grooming or calmly spending time with animals

• Planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting

• Preparing garden beds and compost

• Growing flowers, vegetables, herbs, or fruit

• Maintaining trails, fences, tools, and farm spaces

• Building or repairing simple farm structures

• Preparing animal feed or bedding

• Sorting, cleaning, or organizing farm supplies

• Participating in conservation and land-stewardship projects

• Helping with events, education, and community activities

• Learning practical farm, teamwork, and workplace skills

Not every activity is suitable for every participant, and no one is expected to do everything. Tasks are selected according to interest, comfort, ability, safety, current farm needs, and available support.

Who May Find Care Farming Meaningful?

Care farming may appeal to people who want:

• A stronger connection with animals or nature

• Meaningful activity outside a traditional clinical or classroom setting

• Opportunities to practice social, practical, or workplace skills

• A welcoming place to contribute at their own pace

• Greater routine, confidence, responsibility, or independence

• A sense of purpose and belonging

• A constructive way to spend time with others

• Hands-on learning that connects actions with visible results

• A break from highly structured or institutional environments

• An inclusive community where different abilities are recognized and valued

Open Farms welcomes individuals of varied abilities, identities, experiences, and backgrounds. A diagnosis is not required to attend community co-farming hours.

Some structured programs may require advance registration, additional information, or coordination with a parent, caregiver, school, employer, treatment program, or referring organization.

Care farming is not appropriate for every person or every circumstance. Participation depends on individual interests, support needs, safety considerations, program availability, and whether a working farm is an appropriate environment for the participant.

What Care Farming Is Not

Care farming is not simply a petting zoo, recreational farm tour, or collection of staged activities.

It is also not based on the idea that everyone must be busy, productive, or physically active at all times. Observation, quiet participation, relationship-building, and spending time in nature can be meaningful parts of the experience.

Care farming does not promise that being near an animal or completing a farm task will cure a medical condition. Its purpose is to create an environment in which people can participate, contribute, connect, learn, and grow.

Care Farming and Clinical Therapy

Open Farms is not a medical, behavioral-health, occupational-therapy, physical-therapy, or clinical treatment provider.

We do not diagnose conditions, develop clinical treatment plans, provide psychotherapy, prescribe medication, or represent our activities as a replacement for care from qualified healthcare professionals.

Care farming may complement clinical, educational, vocational, or community services provided elsewhere. A therapist, care coordinator, school, disability-service organization, treatment program, or other professional may recommend or refer someone to Open Farms when the farm environment appears consistent with that person’s interests and goals.

Any clinical treatment remains the responsibility of the participant’s licensed providers.

Is care farming the same as animal-assisted therapy?

No.

Animal-assisted therapy is generally a goal-directed clinical intervention that incorporates an animal into treatment delivered by a credentialed professional.

Care farming takes place within the broader environment and ordinary activity of a working farm. Animals may be an important part of the experience, but they are not the only focus. Gardening, land stewardship, food production, maintenance, teamwork, routine, and community participation may all be involved.

At Open Farms, interaction with animals is not presented as clinical treatment.

Care Farming and Traditional Volunteering

Care farming and volunteering can overlap, but they are not necessarily the same.

Traditional volunteering often begins with the organization’s need for a particular task to be completed. The volunteer is expected to perform that task according to an established schedule or role.

Care farming begins with both the needs of the farm and the interests, choices, abilities, and pace of the co-farmer.

A traditional volunteer may arrive knowing that the morning’s assignment is to repair fencing. A co-farmer may choose among repairing a fence, feeding animals, watering the garden, organizing supplies, collecting eggs, or participating in a quieter activity.

In both cases, the work is real and valuable. The difference is the level of flexibility, support, and emphasis placed on the participant’s experience.

Why Choice Matters

Choice is central to the Open Farms model.

Many people spend much of their lives being told where to go, what service they qualify for, what they are unable to do, or which decisions have already been made for them. Care farming can provide an opportunity to make meaningful choices within a safe and supportive environment.

Choice does not mean the farm has no rules or structure. Animals must be treated respectfully. Safety instructions must be followed. Some tasks require supervision, and certain areas or activities may be restricted.

Within those boundaries, co-farmers are encouraged to explore what interests them, decide how they want to contribute, and discover what feels meaningful.

Why Meaningful Work Matters

There is an important difference between being given something to do and knowing that what you do matters.

When a co-farmer fills a water bucket, an animal drinks from it. When someone weeds a garden, plants have more room to grow. When a shelter is cleaned, an animal has a healthier place to live. When food is harvested, it can be shared and enjoyed.

The task has a purpose beyond filling time.

Care-farming research has identified real and useful work, achievement, responsibility, skill development, social relationships, belonging, structure, nurturing, and feeling valued as possible mechanisms through which participants experience the farm.

At Open Farms, contribution is not measured only by how much someone completes. Showing patience with an animal, learning a new skill, helping another co-farmer, asking for assistance, trying something unfamiliar, or simply returning for another day can all be meaningful forms of growth.

What Does the Research Say?

Care farming is an established field of practice in several European countries and is developing in the United States and elsewhere. Farms operate under many different models, ranging from community programs and vocational services to partnerships with health and social-care systems.

Research participants have frequently described experiences involving:

• Achievement and satisfaction

• Meaningful activity

• Responsibility and useful work

• Learning practical and social skills

• Connection with animals and nature

• Social relationships

• Belonging and acceptance

• Structure and routine

• Feeling valued and respected

• Opportunities to nurture another living thing

These themes appear consistently across qualitative studies and reviews of participant experiences.

The clinical evidence, however, remains limited and mixed.

A systematic review examining care farming and outcomes related to quality of life, depression, and anxiety found some evidence that care farming might improve depression and anxiety, but it did not find clear evidence of improved quality of life. The authors concluded that larger and more rigorous studies are needed.

For that reason, Open Farms describes its approach as evidence-informed, rather than claiming that care farming is a proven treatment for any diagnosis or condition.

We believe the strongest case for care farming is not that a farm magically fixes people. It is that farms can provide something increasingly difficult to find: real responsibility, natural connection, room for individual choice, relationships with living things, visible results, and a community in which each person has something meaningful to contribute.

How Open Farms Applies the Care-Farming Model

Open Farms is a nonprofit care farm located in Springville, New York, serving Western New York.

Our model is built around several principles:

Everyone has something to contribute

Participation is not limited to people with a particular diagnosis, ability level, professional referral, or previous farm experience.

Co-farmers are participants, not passive recipients

People are invited to take part in the real life and work of the farm. Current activities may involve caring for goats, pigs, donkeys, chickens, rabbits, gardens, farm spaces, and the land itself.

Choice is respected

Co-farmers may select activities based on their interests, energy, comfort, abilities, and goals, subject to farm needs and safety requirements.

The work is authentic

The animals genuinely need care. The gardens genuinely need tending. The farm genuinely needs people willing to show up and contribute.

Different forms of participation are valued

Some people come to learn skills. Some come to be around animals. Some seek community, routine, outdoor activity, or a peaceful place to reconnect. Others participate through schools, businesses, treatment programs, disability-service organizations, volunteer groups, or community partnerships.

Animals are partners, not tools

The welfare, comfort, and safety of the animals remain essential. Participation must respect each animal’s needs, temperament, boundaries, and ability to choose distance from people.

We are supportive but nonclinical

Open Farms provides a welcoming farm environment and meaningful opportunities for participation. We do not provide medical or behavioral-health treatment.

Ways to Participate

Open Farms offers several ways to become involved:

Community Co-Farming

Individuals can register for community co-farming hours and participate at their own pace. These hours are currently offered free of charge, although advance booking is requested so that we can plan activities and support participants appropriately.

Skill-Building and Pre-Vocational Programs

Participants can develop practical skills, confidence, social connections, responsibility, and familiarity with workplace expectations through guided farm activities.

School and Group Farming

Schools, classrooms, homeschool groups, community organizations, disability-service providers, and treatment programs may request a structured group experience.

Employee Engagement

Businesses and employers may arrange service days, team-building activities, or employee-engagement programs centered on meaningful farm projects.

Volunteering

Volunteers help care for animals, maintain the property, support gardens, assist with events, complete administrative work, and contribute professional skills.

Come Farm With Us

You do not need previous farming experience to participate. You only need curiosity, respect for the farm and its animals, and a willingness to take part at a level that is appropriate for you.

Before visiting, please review our current hours, registration requirements, farm conditions, accessibility information, weather policy, and recommendations about what to wear.

Open Farms
7512 Genesee Road
Springville, New York 14141
716-803-7484

Co-Farming Hours

Explore Our Programs

Sources and Further Reading

Open Farms encourages visitors, professionals, educators, and community partners to explore the developing body of research concerning care farming, green care, meaningful activity, and human-animal relationships.

• The Impact of Care Farms on Quality of Life, Depression and Anxiety Among Different Population Groups: A Systematic Review
  Campbell Systematic Reviews; researchers affiliated with the University of Leeds, Wageningen University & Research, the University of York, and Care Farming UK.

• Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of Care Farms on Health and Well-Being of Offenders on Probation
  National Institute for Health and Care Research and NCBI Bookshelf. This research includes a review of the mechanisms through which care farming may work, including meaningful activity, belonging, useful work, structure, nurturing, and social connection.

• Mental Health Recovery on Care Farms and Day Centres: A Qualitative Comparative Study of Users’ Perspectives
  A study examining participants’ experiences of care farms as real-life work settings involving responsibility and connection with other people.

• Exploring the Role of Farm Animals in Providing Care at Care Farms
  Research examining useful work, human-animal relationships, participant choice, and the varied roles animals may play within care-farming settings.

• Farming for Life Quality and Sustainability: A Literature Review of Green Care Research Trends in Europe
  A review of European green-care research, settings, activities, participant groups, and models.

• International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations: Guidelines and Definitions
  International guidance distinguishing animal-assisted therapy, education, activities, coaching, and other animal-assisted services.