Today we had a field trip with our Homeschool C0-op Group to a Working Dairy Farm, this was a family owned dairy (not a corporate owned one). They were a great family and gave an excellent, very educational tour of their farm. The children got to bottle feed new calfs, feed the cows, see a cow milked, feed other farm animals (sheep, goats, turkeys and chickens)...they also learned how milk is gotten from the cows to the holding tanks, from the holding tanks to the trucks that take it to the processing plants, what is done to it at the processing plant...including how it is bottled. They learned about Pasteurization and Homogenization. They learned that milk is actually taken to the skimmed state at the plant and then the fat is added back in according to the precentage of fat in our milk (1%, 2 % and whole milk). They learned exactly what all the farmers duties are on the farm and how much work it takes to run a farm on a daily basis.
Petting a Milk Cow (Sweet Potatoe)
Mommy hand milking Sweet Potatoe
Checking out the milking machine equipment.
Petting a new baby calf
Bottle Feeding a new baby calf.
Just a cute picture
A bucket full of Corn Silage
Feeding the cows Corn Silage