Dairy Farm Field Trip!

We recently went on a tour of a local dairy farm with a homeschooling group and had a great time! Our tour guide, Mark, was really informative and answered everyone's questions.
 

Can I just say it smelled bad? Yes, I am a total city girl. Manure is not my thing. The smell came in waves. Sometimes it didn't stink so you would get tricked in to breathing through your nose again. Then it would smell like crap again. It was actually pretty clean for a barn with at least 20 cows. But Mark said that they clean out the barn at least 5x a day.

The cows (holstein) were really curious and really gentle, which surprised us because they are HUGE.

 Cait was super excited about petting the cows!

 Jayden decided it was a better idea to hang toward the back and keep his hands to himself.

pooping cow

peeing cow

After touring the barn we went outside to see the calves which were all 2 months and under.

 

Mark brought this little guy out and he was really friendly!

He explained that these babies were really content when you put your hand in their mouth because they thought they would get milk if they suckled.

 

 When Mark put him back inside, the little calf kept mooing at Caitlin.

We headed over to visit the one donkey they had at the farm. He was also really friendly. While the kids visited the calves he brayed, calling attention to himself until we visited him.

Of course we could not leave a dairy farm empty handed. We bought some amazing freshly made chocolate chip cookies.

 

We also bought some fresh vanilla ice cream. This is AMAZING! It is so creamy and delicious.

adding sprinkles

 

Yummy!

 When I asked the kids what they learned from this trip, these are the answers they gave:

- Cows are pregnant for 9 months
- Calves weigh almost 100lbs when they are born
- Cows tongues are about 8 inches long and feels like sandpaper
- Cows do poop
- Holstein cows make 10x more milk than their calves can drink

We literally left the barn smelling like cow poop. It was pretty gross, but it was a fun trip!