School ag day or calf club day with stalls

Outdoor: weather matters

A rural school's pet, calf and lamb day where children show their animals and the PTA runs food, produce and craft stalls for the whole district.

Typically raises

$8,000

$2,000–23,000 per eventest.

About $133 per organiser hour

Based on one rural school ag day

Is it right for us?

Money: $2,000–10,000
Work: A team for weeks
Helpers: 16–40 people
Lead time: 2–4 months
Red tape: Some

Common: a fixture at almost every rural school

People: 20-40 across stalls, judging, parking, animal pens and clean-up (estimate)
Organiser time: 40-80 hours across a committee (estimate)
Lead time: 3-4 months: children rear calves and lambs from late winter; ag days run in September-October (Local Matters; Omega)
Up-front cost: $800. Food stock, ribbons and rosettes, hire of pens, toilets or EFTPOS; stallholder fees offset some of it (estimate).
Risk: Medium: food stock and hire are bought before the day; rain cuts the crowd.

Suits: Primary or intermediate school

Less usual for: Kindy or early learning

When: Spring (Sep–Nov)

How big a job: A small team for weeks, 16–40 people

How it works

The money, as an example sum

Sell at $20 a stall, keep $20, so 440 stalls = $8,800, or about $8,000 after about $800 of costs. That’s about the typical result.

Using the figures on this page. Your prices and costs will differ.

Where the money figure comes from

Dairy Flat School raised 'just over $23,000' from its Ag Day with baking, coffee, candy floss, lolly-making, 15+ external stallholders and animal judging (Local Matters). Smaller country schools will raise less; typical $8,000 is an estimate.

Last checked October 2026. Ran this? Tell us what you raised and we’ll use real results to improve the figures.

Step by step

Set the date early in term 3 so families can source calves, lambs or kids in time.
Publish animal rules: NAIT tags and registration, age limits, ASD forms, leading and care classes.
Line up judges (local farmers, vets) and prizes from rural suppliers.
Plan stalls: baking, coffee, sausage sizzle, candy floss, produce and plants, plus paid spots for outside stallholders.
Add children's competitions with entry fees: scarecrows, bird feeders, decorated eggs, vegetables grown (Local Matters).
Roster parents for each stall and for parking and pens.
Set up handwashing at the animal area and keep food stalls away from pens.
Run EFTPOS or tap-to-pay as well as cash floats.
Count takings in pairs and bank; report the total and what it funds.

Getting the word out

Even a well-run plan fails if nobody hears about it. There are two asks, and the first one goes out first.

Ask for help: Families to bake, give stock or take a shift on the stall.
Ask people to buy: People to come and buy on the day.
When to start: Ask for helpers first, as soon as the date is set. Start the public ask about 6–8 weeks out, and book newsletter and paper notices before that: small newsletters close early.

Where to put it

School, club and church newslettersYour own newsletter is free and read by the families most likely to say yes. Check when it closes.
Local Facebook pages and community groupsPost in your town’s community page and local groups (check their rules), and share from your group’s own page.
Facebook events and what’s-on listingsMake a Facebook event people can say they’re going to, and list it on your council’s or town’s what’s-on page.
Community newsletters and magazinesResidents’ newsletters, village magazines and other churches’ bulletins often run community notices free. Small ones close early.
Other groups sharing itAsk the school, kindy, church, sports club or marae down the road to share it in their newsletter or page. Offer to share theirs back.

The full guide to getting the word out: every channel from flyers to the evening news, with lead times and costs.

What you’ll need

Place: NeededYour own grounds or hall
Landowner’s permission: Not needed
Council permit: Not needed
Food rules: CheckNo registration if you sell food to fundraise for a good cause up to 20 times a calendar year. It must still be safe and suitable, and your council may need a stall permit
Alcohol: Not neededNo alcohol sold
Gambling rules: NeededClass 1: prizes and the value of all tickets printed both $500 or less. If an individual runs it, all the money goes back as prizes. Sold in person only. Our rule: a numbered paper ticket for every entry
Health and safety: CheckA simple risk check and briefing
First aid: NeededA first aider and kit on site (recommended)
Insurance: CheckCheck your cover

Calves must be NAIT-tagged and registered with movements recorded; follow MPI Mycoplasma bovis guidance, ASD forms and TB testing for older calves. Provide handwashing near animal pens.

Make more from it

Paid spots for outside stallholders
$20-50 per stall (estimate)
a ready crowd with no stock risk to the school
Rural hamper raffle
often $300-500 within class 1 (estimate)
farm suppliers donate readily
Seedling and produce stall
often $200-600 (estimate)
spring planting season and a rural crowd

Stack it: on its own, about $8,000. With the 3 priced add-ons above, roughly

$8,800est.

What you can get donated

Ribbons and prizes from farm suppliers and vets; produce, plants and baking from families; local judges volunteer.

Tips

Outside stallholder fees add income with no stock risk (Local Matters).
Rural communities turn out for animal judging; advertise in local papers and Facebook groups.
Name the project: Dairy Flat's funds went to pool heating and changing rooms (Local Matters).

Watch out for

Animals arriving without NAIT tags or forms puts the day and farms at risk.
Food stalls next to animal pens are a hygiene risk.
Wet weather: have a hall or covered fallback for food stalls.

Free tools for this

Event budget and break-evenCover site hire, stall costs and floats before you count a profit.
Volunteer roster plannerPrefilled with the usual roles (food stall, stall cashier, animal pens marshal, judging steward and parking marshal) in 2-hour shifts.
Cash float and takings counterGive each stall a counted float, then cash up in pairs at the end.
Checklist for any ideaBefore, on the day and after, built from this idea’s own steps and rules.

Typical rules

NAIT: calves attending must be NAIT-tagged and registered and movements recorded to and from the show (Patoka School calf club rules, following MPI and NAIT).
Disease control: follow MPI Mycoplasma bovis guidance on calves mixing; calves over 3 months may need a pre-movement TB test and Animal Status Declaration (ASD) forms (Patoka School).
Food stalls: Food Act 2014 fundraising exemption if you sell food to fundraise fewer than 20 times a year (MPI).
Raffles and chocolate wheels are gambling: class 1 limits are $500 prizes and $500 turnover (DIA).
Health and safety: plan for animals near children (handwashing for zoonoses, separate pens), parking and traffic on the day (estimate; HSWA 2015 applies to the school as a PCBU).

Check the details

Sources

Researched October 2026. All fundraising ideas

* General fundraising information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Money figures are examples and estimates, not promises. Check current official requirements before you commit. About this guide