Children can enjoy a hands-on experience with farm animals at the Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival.

Millers Ark Animals will be in the popular Village Green area. Established in 1991 by Elizabeth Miller as an offshoot of her farming business in Hampshire, they aim to help bring children and adults into closer contact with farm animals. People visit the farm's Animal Touch Centre to experience the benefits of one-to-one interaction with the animals, a therapy which has achieved some remarkable results. Millers Ark Animals introduced the mobile farm' concept to bring the sights and sounds of the farmyard to shows and schools and other events in order to give people an opportunity to enjoy a hands-on experience with animals. The selection of rare breeds and traditional animals at the Royal Welsh Festival will include miniature Shetland ponies and miniature and standard donkeys, sheep, Irish Moiled or Belted Galloway calves together with African Pygmy and Anglo-Nubian goats, Brahma chickens, pet lambs and kids, ducks and geese and bantam hens.

There will also be a programme of popular demonstrations which will take place regularly throughout the day. These usually include chick and duckling handling and grooming ponies and donkeys. All the demonstrations are carried out by experienced handlers of farm animals and all the animals are home-bred and well-used to children.