Field Trip to Sunview Dairy

The Homeschool Group got together this CHILLY November morning for a trip to a nearby dairy farm. After the shock of the cold ( and the smell) we really learned a lot!

Here is a close up view of one of the milking stations. The cows are each milked twice per day. NEVER a day off! They walk in single file , walk to the end, and turn, put thier heads through the opening and their back ends facing ready to be hooked on! He said it takes about 2 weeks to train them to do that. Each cow produces an average of 7 - 9 gallons of milk a day!

Since the Dairy was only 13 miles from home, Daddy was able to take a break and join us for a little while!

Here is Kaebrie, hanging tight to the "udder-suckers"

We were taken to the nursery. These babies were only one day old. A cow can't produce milk until she has given birth to a calf, so there are countless pregnant cows all the time!

Then I guess she wanted to be a baby cow. She was the only one who could fit in there!

Kaebrie was a LITTLE nervous about touching the calf.......

But she did it ( in her way to big gloves because Mommy couldn't find a smaller sized pair)

Kaitlynn and our friends Grace and Alice looking into another baby pen.

The Idaho Smith kids with a herd of Idaho dairy cows!

BONUS!!!!!!!!!!! One of the mommy cows was actually giving birth while we were there! You can see the legs sticking out!!!!!!!!! We weren't able to stick around for the entire birth. It was WAY to cold and windy out, and the owner said this was her first calf and might take her a few hours. He said they average about 5 births a day.

I love this one! This is the pen where all the Mommy cows that are due to deliver any day are held until they deliver.

It was finally time to get out of the wind and go back to the main dairy house for a snack! Chocolate milk and cheese! :-)

Kaebrie helping herself!

Here are some interesting facts we learned today!

*Cows eat about 90 pounds of food PER DAY! EACH!! That is equal to about 480 hamburgers!
*Each cow drinks between 30 - 50 gallons of water each day
*A cow that eats only grass can produce about 50 glasses of milk in a day; but a cow that is fed grass, corn, hay and feed can make DOUBLE that!
*When Pilgrams came to America, they brought cows with them!