FIELD TRIP: Visit To A Dairy Farm
The dairy cows all lined up happily for their milking!
Today’s adventure was a trip to a local dairy farm with some friends! This one in particular is special because they encourage the public to come and observe the “milking”. The cows are milked every day around 3pm, as well as once in the early morning. When we arrived, some of the cows were already lined up and clearly eager for their milking! When the time officially came, the rest of the cows happily ambled over too, patiently waiting their turn in a fashion oddly reminiscent of people waiting to attend an event.
It was amazing to observe from such a close spot, and luckily the cows weren’t bothered a bit by our kids’ antics!
The cows walked directly towards us after their milking was done!
Milk sprayed out as soon as the milk collectors were placed on the udders, and the milking lasted about 10-15 minutes. Afterwards the farmhand wiped the teats with betadine and Willow was worried that it looked like blood. We made sure to explain that it was to keep the udders clean so that the cows wouldn’t get any infections. As we were watching, we speculated about how the cows would get back to their pens because the line was so tight, and there wasn’t much space at the front. Soon enough the milk collectors dropped off, and we laughed in surprise as we realized that the bar lifted up and the cows walked out directly towards us! I didn’t quite capture the moment, but you can kind of see it in the picture - it would have been fun to see the girls’ faces! Luckily they are such gentle animals and were very focused on getting back to their stable area (presumably for their dinner!).
Our city kids couldn’t handle the countryside fumes! They made us laugh as they held their noses everywhere they went!
Another fun part of the farm was the baby animal area - full of friendly piglets, calves and chicks! The kids had fun petting the animals and we laughed at a little piglet attempting to get milk from another (larger) piglet who was clearly unfazed. It was a perfect time to visit because it was feeding time, and the animals didn’t mind us getting close!
The piglets were adorable, and we were easily able to pet them because they were distracted with dinner!
The calves were quite a bit bigger than when we last visited in the spring, but still fun to pet!
After exploring the farm a bit, we enjoyed eating farm fresh ice cream and reading a couple books about cows. A fun fact we learned is that their tails have more purpose than simply serving as a flyswatter. Similar to other animals, they use their tails to communicate - if their tail is straight that means they feel relaxed, but if it’s tucked in that means they are scared or maybe sick. It was also a good reminder to read that females are called “cows” and often people mistakenly call a herd of cattle “cows” even if there are bulls in the mix. The kids also had a great time playing (rather recklessly) on the seesaw while we moms stood guard, holding our breaths. Seesaws, hair-raising though they can be, do provide excellent lessons in weight comparison!
We read a couple books together at the farm and the rest once we returned home!
The seesaw was a top hit and a great way to learn about weight in a tangible, real-life way!
Kid Reflections:
Willow’s favorites: “The ice-cream, of course! And I liked seeing the cows get milked and playing on the seesaw!”
Juni’s favorite: “The seesaw! The big, big seesaw!”
Kids & piles of dirt: forever meant to be together!
Our little party animals living their best life!
