A real working dairy rather than a field dressed up for October, which makes it the most genuinely agricultural option in the Bradenton-Sarasota area — but the farm had not published 2026 dates or ticket prices when we last checked.
Ticket price not published in the sources found. Children 5 and under free; parking free (2025 season).
Most Florida fall festivals are a field, a truckload of pumpkins and a rented bounce house. Dakin Dairy is a working dairy that happens to run a harvest festival, and the difference shows in the activity list: a live cow milking demonstration, a hayride where the cows get fed, a moo train, a touch-a-tractor. Those are things the farm does anyway, opened up to visitors, and they are more interesting than anything a pop-up patch can stage.
That is the case for making the drive. It is a real drive — this is inland Manatee County, not a suburban lot — so the trip needs to be worth it, and for a family with a curious five-to-ten-year-old it probably is.
The festival was in its second year in 2025 and the farm had not posted 2026 dates or ticket prices as of late August. Everything on this page about when it opens and what it costs comes from last season’s coverage: October weekends, 10am to 5pm, free parking, free entry for children five and under. That is useful for planning but it is not a promise, and a young festival is exactly the kind that changes its format between years. A phone call before you set out is worth more here than at an established operation with a published calendar.
Beyond the dairy-specific attractions, the published list runs to a corn maze, a kid zone playground, bounce houses, a pumpkin cannon, u-pick sunflowers, live music and food trucks. That is a broad enough spread to fill a morning, and the sunflowers are a genuine draw in a state where flower u-pick is uncommon.
The pumpkins came from somewhere else. Florida cannot grow a commercial fall pumpkin crop, so even a working farm like this one is arranging fruit trucked in from out of state. And a second-year festival on a real dairy will feel more like a farm and less like a theme park — fewer paved paths, more dirt, more cows, and possibly a rougher operational edge on a busy Saturday. If that is what you came for, it is the point rather than a flaw.
Saturday or Sunday morning at the 10am opening, based on the hours the farm ran last season. This is inland Manatee County with very little shade and a 5pm close; the back half of an October afternoon out there is hot, and the drive from the coast means arriving late costs you a disproportionate share of the day.
Around three hours if the activity list holds from last season. A corn maze, moo train, a cow-feeding hayride, a milking demonstration and a sunflower field is a substantial morning, and the milking demo in particular is likely to run to a schedule you'll want to plan around.
Weekends only in October, which compresses the season into roughly eight or nine days and concentrates demand. The festival was only in its second year in 2025, so it has less of an established rush than the decades-old Sarasota-area events — that may work in your favour on a mid-October Saturday.
Parking was free in the 2025 season. As a working dairy the lot will be pasture or packed dirt rather than pavement, so expect soft ground after rain — an inference from the type of property, not something the farm has published.
You need to know the price in advance, or you need a short trip. This is a rural property with a meaningful drive attached from anywhere on the coast, and no published 2026 admission price to plan around.
Neither had been published as of August 2026. Last season the festival ran on October weekends from 10am to 5pm with free parking and free entry for children five and under, but treat all of that as last year's information until the farm confirms.
It is an operating dairy. The cow milking demonstration and the hayride cow feeding are things a farm that only exists for October cannot offer, and they are the main reason to choose this over a closer patch.
Almost certainly not. Florida's climate does not support a commercial fall pumpkin crop, so pumpkins at essentially every patch in the state are trucked in and arranged.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Weekends (Sat-Sun) in October. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission pricing was not published when we last checked. Ticket price not published in the sources found. Children 5 and under free; parking free (2025 season).
30771 Betts Road, Myakka City, FL 34251, in Manatee County. It is one of 11 patches we track in Tampa Bay.
We track 11 patches in Tampa Bay, 4 of which are free to walk into. The farm has not published a gate price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.
What sets it apart locally: it has u-pick fields, which most Tampa Bay patches on our list do not.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 7 of the 11 patches we track in Tampa Bay had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
There is 1 other patch we track in Manatee County. All Tampa Bay patches →
dakindairyfarms.com · bradentongulfislands.com
Checked August 2026.