Dairy Farm Field Trip

What a beautiful day for a field trip.
We visited a dairy farm this morning.

This is the milking barn.  The cows had already been milked this morning so we saw the equipment that is used.

The farmer told us that the cows line up to get milked and that the same cows are always in line first and the same ones at the end.

Pete wanted a closer look at the suction cups that go on the cow's teats.

 The milk goes through here to be filtered then is stored in this large tank.

 The farmer has a calendar to keep track of the cows that are milking, pregnant and soon to give birth.

The next barn housed the cows.  They were busy eating.

But didn't mind us checking them out.

One cow had a little nibble on Pete when he tried to say hello.

We were impressed with how big their tongues are.

 

The farmer milked a cow for us then Pete had a try.

On to the calf barn.  We had to check out to see if this one was real or not.  Decided it was not.

 The calves ranged in age from 1 week to 5 months.

 

It took the calves a few minutes to become comfortable with the noise and little hands pointing at them.  Then they started licking.

 

A highlight was seeing the farm machinery.

 

They are filling these long air tight plastic bags with shredded corn to use later as feed for the cows.

At the end of this wonderful tour the farmer provide snacks of yogurt, chocolate milk and cookies.

Thank you.