SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — The parade of farms flyer promises: "7 hours, 12 farms and 98 miles of family friendly fun." On display will be pasture-raised sheep, large grain equipment, dairy cows and calves, alpacas, ducks with guard donkeys and more.

Visitors can touch the farm animals and some machinery, and will taste honey, fruit and vegetables, beef, lamb, goat cheese, eggs, wine and ice cream. All of this will be the on the schedule of the Shelby County Good Neighbors Tour of Shelby County farms Sept. 20, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

It will be the second time for the popular event; the first tour in 2013 of eight farms and businesses had fewer tour sites. The idea for this promotion originated one night at a meeting of local agriculturalists at the office of Shelby County extension. County ag agent Corinne Belton said similar tours are sometimes done in other Kentucky counties.

This year’s farm tour is sponsored by Farm Credit Mid-America, Shelby County Farm Bureau, Shelby County Cooperative Extension Service and local farmers.

"We do have Metzger’s Country Store in Simpsonville as one of the starting points again this year," said Belton. "Our Shelby County Farmers’ Market in Shelbyville is the other starting-off point."

Starting points are business locations where the public obtain their Farm Tour Map and Passport. The maps show all the tour farms, and people drive themselves on a straight course from one location to the next. Ferenc Vegh of Shelby County Farm Bureau Insurance is an owner of one of the farms. Each stop, he said, will typically provide about a half-hour to 45-minute presentation and will have numerous hands-on activities for visitors. "I think this is a great opportunity for those of us on the agriculture side of things to the show our friends and neighbors (the consumers) where their food and fiber comes from," Vegh said.

Rebecca Abbott, a director of Farm Credit Mid-America, said several Shelby County Farm Credit loan officers are going to be out and about in the community and on some of the farms that day. They will be ready to share information about what Farm Credit can do for rural home buyers and small-time farm purchasers.

Belton talked more about what tour-takers might see. "We have two sheep farms. We have an alpaca farm. We have a vineyard this time. We have a dairy farm and a beef cattle farm. Then we have a dairy goat farm, and an orchard."

Another point of interest will be some mini guard donkeys, which are becoming popular in the county.

Information for the Good Neighbors Farm Tour may be found at http://business.shelbycountykychamber.com/events/details/good-neighbors-farm-tour-873 or by calling Corrine Belton 502-633-4593.