A Centre County farm is bringing baby goats to local events and we’re not kid-ding around

Nittany Meadow Farm, run by Tara and Mike Immel, is popular for its goat yoga and goat visits but has started a new service — bringing baby goats to you.

The farm held its official ribbon cutting for the Goats2Go bus Friday at Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza in downtown State College, featuring free goat cuddles.

The idea was born out of several requests for the farm to bring the goats to local activities, such as birthday parties or community events. But transporting and containing livestock, even just six baby goats, can be a hassle. So the Immels opted for a bus where people could spend time with the goats in an enclosed area.

“It’s just a nice way that we can travel with the goats and get down to different locations and have to try to mitigate some of the other issues that arise,” Tara Immel said.

The bus will bring goats to any event within a 10 miles radius of the Harris Township farm for private or public events. Booking information can be found at Nittany Meadow Farm’s website.

Nittany Meadow Farm received two grants from Happy Valley Adventure Bureau in May, one of which was $2,000 to refit what would become the Goats2Go bus and another $9,000 grant for the construction of a dairy operation. Immel said the total cost of refinishing and decorating the bus was around $10,000.

“Happy Valley AgVentures has been a huge supporter of us,” Immel said. “We teamed up with them last year and they have helped us promote our events. They actually provided some grant funding for us to do redo the inside of the bus.”

Fritz Smith, president and CEO of Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, said that the Goats2Go bus is a prime example of agritourism that helps support local farms and businesses.

“People want to see the food grown locally that they’re eating in restaurants, they want to commune with nature, they want to see animals,” Smith said. “And this is this is a perfect example of what this effort was designed to elicit.”