Agritourism Risk Management Plan: How to Keep One Bad Afternoon From Closing Your Farm (Free One-Page Emergency Template)

4 days ago

24 min read

Farm owner briefing seasonal staff with a clipboard emergency plan beside a hay wagon and first aid kit at a corn maze entrance

On a Monday evening in October 2011, a family walked into the seven-acre corn maze at Connors Farm in Danvers, Massachusetts. Two parents, a five-year-old and a three-week-old baby. The father later said the maze closed at 6 p.m. The light went fast.

At about 6:35 p.m., the mother called 911. "It's really dark and we've got a 3-week-old baby with us," she told the dispatcher.

A K-9 officer found them within minutes by following the father's voice. One local report put them just 25 feet from the road; another said they were only 25 to 30 feet into the maze. "They were almost out of the maze, but they did not realize it," said Sgt. Robert Bettencourt.

The story ended well, and the farm's owner said staff always stay until the last guest leaves. But notice who that family called. Not the farm. 911.

So what is an agritourism risk management plan? It is a short written plan that answers three questions before opening day: what could go wrong on your farm, who does what in the first minutes when it does, and how the bills get paid afterwards. Write it once, train it every season, and that frightened phone call becomes a calm ten minutes instead of a headline.

The Short Answer: A working agritourism risk management plan has seven parts. (1) A risk register: every hazard, scored by how likely and how bad. (2) Written rules for each high-risk activity. (3) An emergency action plan with named people, a call card by every phone and a lost-child drill. (4) Weather triggers decided in advance. (5) A neighbour plan for noise, traffic and parking. (6) Paperwork: insurance that lists every activity, waivers, signs and incident reports. (7) Drills and a review date. One page per part is enough. The one-page emergency template is further down.

Corn maze with pumpkins in front, the kind of farm attraction where visitors can get lost after dark — Illustrative photo, not Connors Farm. Photo: Hannah McBride on Unsplash.

By Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun.

I am a farmer, not a lawyer or an insurance agent. Everything below is built on published guidance from university extension services, government safety agencies and real cases. Where the law or your policy decides the answer, I give you the question to ask, not the answer.

Why a Written Plan Matters More on a Farm Than Almost Anywhere Else

You already worry about this. You are not alone.

In a national survey of 1,834 US farm, ranch and vineyard operators, led by the University of Vermont, 81% called liability a challenge. Eighty per cent said the same about the cost or availability of insurance. Seventy-three per cent struggled with managing visitor access.

Bar chart: 81 per cent of 1,834 US agritourism operators rate liability a challenge and 80 per cent rate insurance cost or availability a challenge — Only time and labour scored higher than liability, which tied with marketing at 81%. Source: University of Vermont and partners, published April 2021.

Meanwhile the visitors keep coming. The Minnesota Star Tribune, citing the 2022 Census of Agriculture, reported US agritourism and recreational income rose from $949 million in 2017 to nearly $1.26 billion in 2022. More gates open, more strangers on farm ground.

Here is the part most farmers never think about. Your farm is far from help.

A study in JAMA Surgery looked at about 1.75 million US ambulance calls from 2015. In cities and suburbs, the typical wait from the 911 call to the first crew on scene was 6 minutes. In rural areas it was 13 minutes. One rural call in ten waited 26 minutes or more.

Now hold that against one fact from Interior Health in British Columbia: a person can bleed to death in as little as five minutes.

Bar chart: median ambulance response is 6 minutes in urban and suburban areas and 13 minutes in rural areas, with 1 in 10 rural calls waiting 26 minutes or more — The gap between the call and the ambulance is your plan's job. Sources: Mell et al., JAMA Surgery 2017; Interior Health, 2022.

US workplace rules already know this. For employees, OSHA has read "near proximity" to mean emergency care within 3 to 4 minutes where serious injuries are possible. Where help cannot arrive that fast, it expects someone on site to be trained in first aid. Your visitors are not your employees, but the clock runs the same for them.

That gap between the call and the ambulance is the whole reason a written plan exists. In the city, help fills it. On your farm, your people fill it, or nobody does.

Reality Check: This article is general information, not legal, insurance or medical advice. Laws differ by country, state and province. Take the questions in each section to your own lawyer, insurance agent and local emergency services.

What Goes in an Agritourism Risk Management Plan: The 7 Parts

Most "risk plans" fail because they are 40 pages long and live in a drawer. Yours should fit on seven sheets of paper, and staff should be able to find the one they need in ten seconds.

Part	The question it answers	What you end up with	Go deeper
1. Risk register	What could hurt someone here?	A scored list with an owner for each fix	Hidden farm hazards
2. Activity rules	How do we run each risky activity safely?	One card per activity	Petting zoo handwashing
3. Emergency action plan	Who does what in the first ten minutes?	One-page plan, call card, lost-child drill	The template below
4. Weather plan	When do we stop, shelter or close?	Written triggers and shelter spots	Bad weather policy
5. Neighbour plan	Who could we annoy, and how do we stop it?	Event calendar, traffic plan, complaint log	Farm wedding zoning
6. Paperwork and money	Who pays if it goes wrong?	Insurance list, waivers, signs, incident forms	Agritourism insurance
7. Drills and review	Does the plan still match the farm?	Drill log and a review date	Part 7 below

Let's build each part.

Part 1: Your Risk Register (Find It, Score It, Decide)

Britain's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) boils risk management down to five steps. Identify the hazards. Assess the risks. Control them. Record your findings. Review the controls.

In Great Britain, a business with five or more employees must write down its significant findings. Even if that rule does not apply to you, copy the habit. The written list is what you train from, what you show an insurer, and what you check after something goes wrong.

HSE also warns businesses not to "rely purely on paperwork". The register is only useful if it changes what happens in the field.

Step 1: Walk the farm as a visitor

Walk every path a visitor can reach. Crouch to a child's height. Look for what can be climbed, opened, touched or fallen into.

Penn State Extension's agritourism safety guide puts the mindset in one line: "Never assume that people will do what you think they should."

If you have not done a full hazard walk yet, start with my guide to the hidden farm hazards your visitors can't see. It covers slurry gas, machinery, water, grain, cattle, germs, inflatables and wagons in detail. This plan is the written layer that sits on top of it.

Step 2: Score each risk

For every hazard, ask two questions. How likely is it to hurt someone? How bad would it be?

Agritourism risk matrix: likely and serious risks must be fixed or stopped before opening, middle risks need written controls, unlikely minor risks are watched — A three-by-three grid is enough for most farms. Orange squares get fixed before the gate opens.

Anything in an orange square gets fixed, fenced, locked or dropped before a single visitor arrives. Yellow squares get a written rule, staff training and a check. Green squares get logged and watched.

Step 3: Give every fix an owner and a date

A hazard with no name next to it does not get fixed. A hazard with a name and a date usually does.

Field-Tested Play: Set up your register with six columns: Hazard / Who could be hurt / Score (orange, yellow, green) / Control / Owner / Check date. Keep it on one sheet per area of the farm: parking, entrance, play area, animals, rides, fields, buildings. Photograph each fix with the date on your phone. Those photos become part of your record if you are ever asked what you did.

Part 2: Written Rules for Your High-Risk Activities

Some activities carry most of your risk. Rides, animals, water, crowds after dark. Each one needs its own card: who runs it, how many people at once, the minimum age, where staff stand, and the exact moment it stops.

The cost of skipping that card can be terrible.

On the evening of October 12, 2024, Alexander "Xander" Mick, 13, was fatally injured at the Harvest of Horror Haunted Hayride in St. Augusta, Minnesota. He was volunteering as a costumed scare actor in a cornfield. A tractor-pulled wagon ran over him. The sheriff's office said nobody saw how it happened. The owners cancelled the rest of the season.

It was not the only one. The Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center reported a second October 2024 death, a 12-year-old in Hamilton County, Tennessee, who tried to jump onto a hayride wagon. In October 2023 in Rhode Island, a 14-year-old scare actor fell under a wagon's rear wheels and was critically hurt. OSHA investigated and fined the employer.

Look at the pattern. Young people. Moving wagons. Scare actors and riders right beside the wheels.

After the Minnesota death, Pearson Family Farm in Clear Lake, Minnesota, stopped its nighttime hayrides. It kept daytime rides, uses adult spotters and requires at least two adult family members on the tractor.

That is what an activity rule looks like. Specific, written and enforced.

The Star Tribune also reported that Minnesota does not require farm vehicles used for hayrides to be inspected. Pennsylvania, by contrast, had begun setting hayride safety standards and inspection procedures, including daily inspections. Rules vary a lot from place to place. Your written card should not depend on whether the law makes you write one.

Activity	What usually goes wrong	Rules to write on the card	Go deeper
Hayrides and wagon rides	Falls while boarding, people under wheels, brake or hitch failure	Seated riders only, boarding only when stopped, spotters, pre-ride check log, daylight-only rule if you choose	Hidden farm hazards
Haunted or night attractions	Scare actors near moving vehicles, lost visitors in the dark	No actors within reach of wheels, lighting on paths, headcount at close	Corn maze guide
Corn mazes	Lost or panicking visitors, heat, lightning	Phone number on every ticket, flags or marked exits, staff sweep at closing	Corn maze guide
Animal contact	Bites, kicks, E. coli and other illness	Supervised contact, handwashing sinks at the exit, no food in animal areas	Handwashing system
Ponds, troughs and water	Drowning, especially young children	Water outside the public zone, child-resistant fencing, lids on troughs	Hidden farm hazards
Inflatables and play	Wind lifting equipment, falls, collisions	Written wind limit, anchors checked daily, staff on duty, age groups	Bad weather policy
Food and drink	Food poisoning, allergies, alcohol	Permits checked, allergen notes, rules for any bar	Selling food on your farm
Overnight stays	Fire, night-time medical calls, getting crews to the cabin	Smoke alarms, written night contact, directions to each unit	Protect your farm stay

If animals are part of your offer, also read the Bengtson's E. coli investigation and how to manage liability when hosting farm animals.

Field-Tested Play: Write one activity card per attraction, on one side of one sheet: maximum people at once, minimum age or height, staff posts, the pre-opening check, the weather limit, and the "stop" rule (what makes you halt it mid-session). Laminate it and fix it where the activity starts. A new seasonal helper should be able to run the safety side from that card alone.

Part 3: Your Emergency Action Plan (The Heart of the Whole Thing)

This is the part that would have answered the Connors Farm family's first question: who do I call?

It is also the part that most old risk plans skip. They list hazards beautifully, then say "call 911" and stop. On a farm, the hard part comes after the call.

Three sources shaped the plan below. Ohio State's AgritourismReady pages cover injuries and medical emergencies. Rutgers' agritourism emergency response checklist covers the paperwork. And the "Integrating Safety into Agritourism" project from the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS) publishes an emergency response plan prep sheet.

Name the people, not the jobs

In an emergency, "someone should call" means nobody calls, or four people do. Name a person for each job, plus a back-up. The NCCRAHS prep sheet asks for a lead and a back-up for each type of emergency.

You need five roles on any busy day:

Lead: takes charge, makes the decisions, stays calm.
Caller: the one person who calls 911 or 999 and stays on the line.
Carer: gives first aid within their training until crews arrive.
Guide: opens gates and meets the ambulance at the road.
Crowd: keeps other visitors back, pauses nearby rides and runs the headcount.

On a quiet weekday, one person may hold two roles. Write that down too.

Ohio State's guidance is blunt about the call itself. Your protocol should say who is allowed to call 911. It warns that a problem starts when the 911 dispatcher gets 10 to 20 calls about one incident.

Make your farm findable

Your farm address may lead an ambulance to the farmhouse while the patient is in a field a mile away. So your call card needs more than an address.

The NCCRAHS prep sheet tells you to post an emergency response poster by every phone, with emergency numbers and key farm information. It also suggests a mini version for staff to carry. Ohio State says to keep phone numbers, directions to the farm and the farm's address at each activity.

On your card, write:

The farm's address and the nearest crossroads.
Which gate the ambulance should use, and whether it is locked.
A plain-words location for each activity area ("the maze, behind the red barn, second track on the left").
In the UK, the what3words address for each area. The company says its system is used by over 85% of the UK's police, ambulance and fire services.

Then invite the crews to see it for themselves. The Rutgers checklist asks whether you have arranged a walk-through of your operation with fire and EMS personnel, and whether you have a farm map showing key locations. A volunteer fire crew that has already driven your lanes will find you faster.

Get the crew to the patient

Ohio State points to a detail most farmers miss: make sure emergency vehicles can reach every area, including gate widths that fit a stretcher. It also says to have someone meet the crew and escort them to the injured person.

Ohio State also suggests one person per area speaks to responders, so they "get a consistent message from one person."

First aid: what to keep, and who to train

In Great Britain, the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 do not require employers to provide first aid for members of the public. But HSE "strongly recommends" that employers include the public in their first-aid needs assessment and make provision for them. For a farm that sells tickets, that is the standard to plan for.

HSE gives a suggested minimum kit for low-hazard work. It includes a first-aid guidance leaflet, individually wrapped sterile plasters in assorted sizes, sterile eye pads, triangular bandages, safety pins, large and medium sterile wound dressings, and disposable gloves. Treat that as a floor, not a ceiling. Ask a first-aid trainer what your activities add.

Vintage first aid kit on the grass next to a lantern, the kind of kit every farm activity area should have — Illustrative photo. Photo: Markus Kammermann on Unsplash.

Penn State Extension asks whether your first-aid kit is inspected and restocked monthly. It also suggests signs showing visitors where the kits are.

Then train people. The Rutgers checklist asks whether you have employees trained and certified in CPR and basic first aid. The reasons are in the numbers:

More than 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside hospital in the US each year, according to the American Heart Association. Only 40.2% of people in one recent count received bystander CPR.
CPR given straight away can double or triple a person's chance of survival, the American Heart Association says.
Severe bleeding can kill in as little as five minutes, which is less than half the typical rural ambulance wait above.

Ohio State adds a firm limit: unless trained, do not give care beyond first aid. That protects the patient and it protects you.

Reality Check: Ask your insurer and your lawyer two questions before the season. Does my policy expect a trained first-aider on site when visitors are present? And what does my state's or country's law say about staff who give first aid in good faith? Write down the answers and the date.

The lost-child drill

The family lost at Connors Farm were adults with a phone. A lost four-year-old has neither.

Retail stores have used a lost-child procedure called Code Adam for years. A 2002 bill in Congress described it this way. Staff take a detailed description from the parent: name, age, clothing. Designated staff watch every exit. If the child is not found within ten minutes, a designated employee calls 911.

On a farm, "every exit" means the car park gate, the field gates and the road. So your version looks like this:

Parent reports a missing child. The first staff member radios the code word and the description.
Staff move to pre-assigned posts: car park exit, main gate, maze exits, water.
Two staff check the water and the animal areas first.
Ten minutes and still missing: the caller rings 911 or 999.
The parent stays with one staff member at a fixed meeting point.

The NCCRAHS prep sheet suggests a code name for each type of emergency. That way staff can be alerted "without panicking your guests."

For mazes and night attractions, add a closing routine. Print your phone number on every ticket and wristband. Sweep the maze at closing with two staff calling out. Count cars against tickets if you can. That family was only steps from the way out. A sweep and a phone number on the ticket might have turned that 911 call into a staff member walking up with a torch.

The first hour, step by step

Flow chart of the eight jobs in the first hour after a visitor is injured on a farm: stop, call, care, guide, everyone else, record, tell the insurer, fix — Write a name next to each of the eight jobs before opening day.

When a visitor gets hurt, your plan runs in this order:

Stop. Halt the activity. Make the scene safe. Keep others back.
Call. The named caller rings 911 or 999 with the call card in hand.
Care. First aid within training. Pressure on bleeding. CPR if needed. Do not move someone with a suspected head, neck or back injury unless they are in danger where they lie.
Guide. Open the gate. Meet the ambulance at the road. Walk the crew in.
Everyone else. Headcount. A quiet space for the family. Pause nearby rides. Ohio State says to tell other guests once professionals have the situation in hand.
Record. Fill in the incident form while memories are fresh: time, place, what happened, what you did, witness names. Take photos. Write facts, not blame.
Tell. Phone your insurance agent the same day and follow up in writing. Keep copies of everything.
Fix. Within a week, sit down with staff. What failed? Change the rule, the sign or the fence, and record the change.

Penn State Extension says staff should complete an incident report for any incident involving injury to an employee or visitor, or damage to property. Ohio State suggests building your incident form with your insurance agent, so it captures what they will need.

Field-Tested Play: Copy this one-page emergency action plan. Fill in every blank, print it, and pin a copy by every phone, at every activity and in every vehicle.

• Farm name and full address: ________ Nearest crossroads: ________

• Ambulance gate: ________ Key or code kept: ________

• Location words for each area (or what3words in the UK): Parking ________ Maze ________ Animals ________ Rides ________ Cabins ________

• Emergency number: 911 / 999 / 112 (circle yours). Nearest hospital and drive time: ________

• Lead: ________ Back-up: ________

• Caller: ________ Back-up: ________

• Carer (first aid / CPR trained): ________ Back-up: ________

• Guide (meets the ambulance): ________ Back-up: ________

• Crowd and headcount: ________ Back-up: ________

• Code words: Medical ________ Lost child ________ Weather ________ Evacuate ________

• First-aid kits are at: ________ Last restocked: ________

• Safe shelter for lightning or tornado: ________ Assembly point: ________

• Insurance agent's name and phone: ________ Policy number: ________

• Incident forms are kept at: ________

• Plan last drilled on: ________ Next review date: ________

Part 4: Your Weather Plan

Weather is the one risk that announces itself in advance. That is why the worst weather mistakes are decisions made too late.

There are two sides to a weather plan. One is money: refunds, rain dates, cancellation cover. I cover that side in the bad weather policy every visitor farm needs and in the frost backup plan for u-pick farms. This section is the other side: keeping people alive.

Lightning

The US National Weather Service puts it simply: "When thunder roars, go indoors."

Its lightning guidance says lightning may strike as far as 10 miles from any rainfall. People should stay inside until 30 minutes after the last rumble of thunder. Fully enclosed buildings with wiring and plumbing are best. A hard-topped metal vehicle with the windows closed is also safe.

The same guidance is clear about what does not protect you: sheds, picnic shelters, tents or covered porches. Think about how many of those a typical pumpkin patch has.

The Weather Service's preliminary count was 13 lightning deaths in the US in 2024, against a 10-year average of 22. One of the 2024 victims was a 51-year-old man branding and feeding cattle in an open field in Jackson County, Colorado.

If someone is struck, the guidance is clear: lightning victims do not carry an electrical charge. Give first aid at once, and begin CPR if you are trained.

Tornadoes

The Weather Service's tornado advice: get into a sturdy building. Go to a basement, safe room or interior room, away from windows. It lists sheds, storage facilities, mobile homes and tents as not safe, and says being in a vehicle during a tornado is not safe either.

For a farm full of visitors, that means one thing. Know before opening day which solid building can hold your peak crowd, and how long it takes to walk everyone there.

Heat

The NHS (the UK's health service) gives a simple routine for heat exhaustion. Move the person somewhere cool. Remove unnecessary clothing. Give plenty of water. Cool their skin with water and fan them.

Heat exhaustion does not usually need emergency help if the person cools down within 30 minutes. If they are still unwell after 30 minutes, or show signs of heatstroke such as confusion, hot skin that is not sweating, a fit or loss of consciousness, call 999 (or 911). The NHS calls heatstroke "a medical emergency."

Wind and flood

Inflatables, marquees and gazebos each have a wind limit. Find it in the maker's instructions and write it on the activity card. Decide who reads the wind meter and when.

For flooding, know which parking fields and lanes go under first, and close them before guests arrive, not after the first car is stuck.

Farm weather trigger table: thunder means indoors until 30 minutes after the last rumble, tornado warning means a basement or interior room away from windows, heat illness not better in 30 minutes means call for help — Decide the trigger, the action and who calls it before the season. Sources: US National Weather Service; NHS.

Dark storm cloud building over a green crop field, the moment a farm weather plan needs to be ready — Illustrative photo. Photo: Dave Hoefler on Unsplash.

Field-Tested Play: Write four weather triggers on your plan, each with a person's name next to it. Thunder heard: everyone indoors or into cars, nobody back out for 30 minutes after the last rumble. Tornado warning: everyone to the named shelter building. Heat: water stations open, shade checked, staff watching the queue. Wind at the written limit: inflatables and marquees closed. Then add one money line from your bad weather policy: rebook first, credit second, refund last.

Part 5: Your Neighbour Plan

Most risk plans ignore the neighbours. That is a mistake, because a neighbour dispute can cost you more seasons than any storm.

The Vernon Family Farm story

Jeremiah and Nicole Vernon run Vernon Family Farm in Newfields, New Hampshire. They raise pigs and sheep, run a farm store and host concerts, classes and tours. The Vernons told New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) that each event brings 50 to 200 people and $5,000 to $15,000. Vernon says the concerts end at 7 p.m. sharp.

Some neighbours say the events are too loud, too disruptive and draw too much traffic. One neighbour raised safety concerns about Piscassic Road, where a hill makes oncoming cars harder to see. The state asked the Vernons to adjust their driveway for traffic.

In the fall of 2024, three neighbouring families sued both the farm and the town. By July 2025, a Rockingham Superior Court judge had dismissed the case. The neighbours planned to appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

The farm won in court. But Vernon told NHPR the farm was hosting five events that year, though it was permitted to host 50, because the family was tired from the lawsuits. "We continue to win the regulatory battles," he said, but he made clear the family was not winning the battle over time and money.

Winning is not the same as earning.

Your right-to-farm law may not cover events

All 50 US states have right-to-farm laws, according to the National Agricultural Law Center. They are designed to shield qualifying farms from nuisance suits by people who move in nearby.

But do not assume they cover your visitors. In 2013, the Tennessee Supreme Court looked at Maple Lane Farms in Blount County. A neighbour complained about noise, traffic and leftover trash after music concerts on the farm. The court held that the Tennessee Right to Farm Act does not extend nuisance protection to every activity on a farm. The concerts, it said, bore no relation to producing crops or cattle. The county's zoning board ruled the farm could hold only one concert a year.

Reality Check: Ask a local agricultural lawyer three things before you add events. Does my state's right-to-farm law cover agritourism, or only farming? Does my zoning allow this activity, at this size, at these hours? And is there a noise ordinance with a decibel limit or a curfew? If you plan weddings or a barn venue, read farm wedding venue zoning and is your barn legal for visitors first.

Seven moves that keep neighbours on your side

None of these is a legal shield. All of them make a dispute less likely.

Talk before you build. Visit the nearest neighbours before your first event, not after the first complaint.
Give them a direct number. A neighbour who can reach you on the night calls you, not the council.
Publish an event calendar with end times. Then stick to them, the way the Vernons end at 7 p.m.
Keep cars off the road. Parking on your own ground, staff in high-visibility vests at the gate, and a queue lane inside your entrance.
Point the noise away. Face speakers away from houses, and agree a music cut-off.
Keep a complaint log. Date, who, what, what you changed. It shows good faith if a dispute ever reaches the town or a court.
Share the upside. Free passes for neighbours, local suppliers, a community day. Farms that team up with their neighbours often win together, as the Saskatoon-to-Winnipeg farm trail shows.

If you host RVs or campers, the county can get involved fast. My Harvest Hosts guide tells the story of a county letter that threatened $1,000 a day.

Part 6: Your Paperwork and Money Plan

When something goes wrong, three documents decide who pays: your insurance policy, your waiver, and your incident record. A fourth, your warning sign, can decide whether your state's agritourism law protects you at all.

Insurance that lists every activity

Here is the gap that catches growing farms. Your farm policy was written for farming. When you add hayrides, a kids' camp, a petting area or cabins, the policy may say nothing about them. Do not read silence as cover.

Make a full list of every activity on your farm, including the small ones: birthday parties, school trips, the coffee cart. Send it to your agent and ask for written confirmation of what is covered. Tell the insurer before you add a new activity, not after.

My guide to agritourism insurance: what it covers and what it costs walks through the policy types and the quote process. If your insurer has already said no, read what to do when your farm insurer says no. Animal farms should also read why your farm insurance may not pay when a child gets sick.

Waivers, signs and state law

A waiver and a warning sign do different jobs. In many US states, the agritourism liability law protects you only if you post the required warning sign, worded and placed the way the law says.

Read these three before opening day:

Questions to take to your agent and lawyer

Is every activity on my list named on the policy, in writing?
What do I have to do, and by when, to report an injury to you?
Do you have an incident form you want me to use?
Does my cover include illness from animal contact, food and drink, and overnight guests?
Does it cover cancellation or lost income from weather?
If I add an activity mid-season, how fast can you add it?
Does my waiver hold up in my state, and does it cover children?
Does my state's agritourism law require a sign, registration or training to protect me?

The incident record

Penn State Extension asks for an incident report for any injury to an employee or visitor, or property damage. Rutgers asks whether you have a record-keeping system for accidents on the farm.

Keep near-misses too. A near-miss log is cheap, and it shows you where the next accident is coming from before it arrives.

Field-Tested Play: Make an "incident pack" for each first-aid kit: five blank incident forms, a pen, a witness card asking for names and phone numbers, and a printed copy of your insurer's claim line. When something happens, the forms are already in the hand of the person who needs them.

Part 7: Drills and Review

A plan nobody has practised is a wish. The NCCRAHS prep sheet asks you to train all staff on the plan, refresh training, run drills, and document every update, training session and drill.

Review the whole plan at three moments:

Before every season. New staff, new activities, new layout.
Before you add any new activity. New risks, new insurance questions, new neighbours to talk to.
After any incident or near-miss. Within a week, while everyone remembers.

The daily version is short. A ten-minute briefing before the gate opens: today's weather and wind limit, which areas are closed, who holds each emergency role, and where the first-aid kits are. My hidden farm hazards guide has a printable visitor-day checklist you can read out.

Field-Tested Play: The ten-minute drill. Once before opening day, and once mid-season, run a pretend emergency. A staff member "falls" at the far end of the farm. Start a stopwatch. How long until the lead knows? Until the caller has the card in hand? Until the guide is at the road gate? Until someone with a first-aid kit is kneeling beside the "patient"? Write the times on the plan. Then fix whatever was slowest and drill again.

If you hire seasonal help, build the plan into their first day. My guide to hiring seasonal staff for your agritourism farm covers the legal side.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an agritourism risk management plan?

It is a short written plan that lists what could go wrong on your farm, how you prevent it, who does what in an emergency, and how losses get paid. A good one has seven parts: risk register, activity rules, emergency action plan, weather plan, neighbour plan, paperwork and insurance, and drills.

Keep it short enough that staff actually use it. One page per part is plenty for most farms.

Do I legally need a written risk plan for my farm?

It depends on where you farm. In Great Britain, a business with five or more employees must record the significant findings of its risk assessment. In the US, there is no single national rule for visitor farms, but OSHA has first-aid expectations for employees, and many state agritourism laws have their own conditions.

Even where no law demands it, insurers, lenders and courts tend to ask what you had in writing. Ask your lawyer and insurer what applies to you.

What should be in a first aid kit for an agritourism farm?

HSE's suggested minimum for low-hazard work includes a guidance leaflet, assorted sterile plasters, sterile eye pads, triangular bandages, safety pins, large and medium sterile dressings, and disposable gloves. Treat that as the starting point.

Then add what your activities need, on the advice of a first-aid trainer. Keep a kit at each activity area, restock monthly, and put signs up so visitors can find them.

What should I do if a visitor is injured on my farm?

Stop the activity and make the scene safe. Have one named person call 911 or 999. Give first aid within your training. Open the gate and meet the ambulance.

Then look after everyone else, fill in an incident report with photos and witness names, and call your insurance agent the same day. Within a week, review what happened with staff and fix the cause.

If my state has an agritourism liability law, do I still need a plan?

Yes. These laws generally protect against the inherent risks of a farm visit, often only if you meet conditions such as posting a warning sign. They are not insurance, and they do not stop an injury from happening.

See agritourism laws by state for what your state requires.

How do I handle neighbour complaints about noise and traffic?

Talk to neighbours before your first event, give them your direct number, publish end times and stick to them, and keep parking off the road. Log every complaint and what you changed.

Do not assume a right-to-farm law will protect events. Tennessee's Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that its law did not cover concerts on a farm.

How often should I update my agritourism risk management plan?

At least once a year before the season, every time you add an activity, and after any incident or near-miss. Drill it at least once before opening day.

Your Next Step

You now have the seven parts. The fastest way to put them to work before your first season is a plan that tells you what to do each week.

The First-Season Profit Plan is my 39-page workbook for opening your farm to paying visitors. Its sales page promises the one-page emergency plan and the ten-minute drill every helper should run before opening day. It also includes 8 questions to ask your insurer before you build anything, a 12-week countdown checklist and an opening-day go/no-go scorecard. It costs $37, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Get The First-Season Profit Plan

Not sure your farm is ready for visitors at all? The free Farm Readiness Quiz takes a few minutes and shows you where your gaps are.

Take the Farm Readiness Quiz

And if you want more income ideas once your plan is in place, my free ebook gives you 150 ways farms are turning land, buildings and know-how into extra income, so you can pick the ones that fit your farm.

Get the Free 150 Ways Ebook

P.S. The family lost at Connors Farm were about 25 feet from safety and did not know it. Your visitors will never know your farm the way you do. A one-page plan, a phone number on every ticket and a ten-minute drill are how you close that 25 feet before anyone has to call 911.

Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. This article is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice.