Sweet Valley Ranch, located just outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina, has been known to the community as a place where “nature meets adventure.” 

Situated on more than 300 acres of land, the ranch runs not only community-focused annual events such as Dinosaur World, Festival of Lights and Backwoods Terror Ranch, but also serves as a gateway to the growing agriculture industry that can be found in Cumberland County. 

Beyond the fun of their events, Sweet Valley Ranch is also a USDA-licensed meat-processing farm with 12 livestock animal paddocks totaling over 35 acres of land, 30 acres of hay fields and 65 acres of agricultural crop fields. 

What began as the desire for a horse expanded into one of Fayetteville’s main hospitality and agro-tourism attractions thanks to the passion and love of animals from the Ranch’s founders Anita and Fred Surgeon.

“Anita always had a love for horses. We knew we needed some land, and we had been looking for over a year, and once we purchased the land we said, ‘Okay, we can do a horse,’” shared CEO Fred Surgeon. “And I kind of slipped in there about maybe doing a couple goats. And – I’m going to blame myself – I wanted to add a few other things; rabbits and pigeons, a camel, a zebra and a whole lot of things.” 

That love of animals led to Sweet Valley Ranch becoming a home for more than 500 animals representing over five continents, including peacocks, macaws, Aldabra Tortoises, fancy pigeons, a camel named Abdul and more. The two purchased their first lot of land in 2016 and have worked to grow the infrastructure to meet the needs of their animals ever since. 

“It took us from 2016 to 2020 to have infrastructure and all the things that we needed in place,” shared Surgeon. “We spent the first four years building out, buying animals and building barns and fencing for them. And when you have horses and goats and sheep, a big part of that is feeding them. That brought us into the hay business. In 2017, I ended up buying some hay equipment, including the tractor, and we actually planted hay. That was a good investment, because we’re able to use that hay to feed all the different animals.” 

According to Surgeon, some animals come to them from a network of contacts from around the state, some people reach out to them on their website looking for a good home for their animals and some are brought in at the request of guests. 

“We listen to our guests, and we realize that a lot of the folks that come out to the farm, they’ve never seen a miniature cow, or they’ve never seen a fainting goat,” shared Surgeon. 

Sweet Valley Ranch is also in the business of purchasing and selling animals. A dedicated nursery is on site, and the staff utilize technology and new automated systems to provide the right specific environments for different animal and bird varieties such as peacocks, pheasants and ducks. 

“We haven’t had to buy those animals in over four years. We are able to collect their eggs, and then we hatch them and we sell them to the folks that want a few ducks, or they would like to have a peacock. So, yeah, that’s exciting for us,” shared Surgeon. “We’ve sold horses, we sell sheep, we sell goats. We always tell folks, don’t just come to Sweet Valley Ranch and enjoy the animals, but if you have the land and the commitment and the resources, buy some chickens.” 

In the coming months, Sweet Valley Ranch is excited to ramp up the educational feature of the ranch with a new “Behind the Barn” experience, which will allow guests to learn about farming by spending time with team members as they take care of the animals. 

“[It’s] something we’re trying to offer to maybe get folks to decide to go into farming on some type of scale. I think that’s very important. It’s the backbone of North Carolina, and I just want to see more people getting involved in it and realizing that, if you’re creative and you have a love for it, you can figure out a way to do it,” shared Surgeon.  

Currently, the Ranch is hiring for staff members as they enter their busy season and their annual attractions get started for 2026.

“We do a lot of parties and field trips already, we average three to f ive field trips a week from not just Cumberland County, [but] all over. I think last year we had, well in excess of 4000 students that participated in our field trips, and that started as early as February,” shared Surgeon. “We have about five full-time agri-tourism employees just to support those operations. And then we need about 50 as we’re getting ready to go into season.” 

Learn more about Sweet Valley Ranch, their products, animals for sale and employment opportunities online at www.sweetvalleyranchnc.com.