Working farm holiday in UK -any experiences, anyone?

[unpaidcleaner]

My dd fancies working on a farm for a week, she's 9. I've Googled working-farm-holidays and there are lots of them but I don't know where to start - is there an organisation who regulates them? How do I know that it won't be slave labour and crap accommodation when we get there?

Dh is desperate to go on one of these Featherdown Farm which does look better than your average farm camping type holiday. So you could all go, although just realised she wants to WORK on one, ok, maybe no good then.

Thanks, www. i went back to Google and err..there aren't really loads of sites, in fact I can't find any that are actually offering families to get involved in working on the farm. Probably there are too many health & safety regulations these days or something I'm still looking though, there must be somewhere we could stay, do a bit of pottering about, clean out some stables,collect some eggs...!1

Featherdown farm looks fantastic, all the good bits about camping but with a bit more luxuries. Made me a bit gooey and nostalgic looking at the site, don't fancy it in October though but themn I am a big wuss.

This is good www.gwynfrynfarm.co.uk although not sure it would provide the level of hands on experience you are looking for. The children can watch milking twice and in spring time help bottle feed lambs/calf (we went in early Apr). The website also indicates they can help out with other chores but as ds was only 2 when we went it wasn't really relevant.

The owner was really approachable and hands on so it might be worth emailing.

we've been to Gwynfryn farm a couple of times and really enjoyed it, but it does seem to be moving from being a working farm to a holiday resort - fewer animals than there were, and more other things like playroom and trampolines. would recommend it though as a place to stay.

There's quite a few small farm options at www.babyfriendlyboltholes.co.uk/

Many do daily egg collection and animal feeding rounds. North Bradbury farm also has a dining room linked to baby monitors in the cottages so parents can 'dine out' without teh hassle of babysitters