Monday, July 20, 2009

A Trip to the Farm



Well, today was a first full day of Creek Camp, and our schedule was jam-packed! We went hunting for macros and played with the stream table, (SOOOO much fun!!) but there's more to read about that in other posts. This post is about our trip to the dairy farm.





Well our dairy farm tour was taken backwards today because they had a problem in the milking barn. We got our picture on the huge tractor first. Next, we made our way to the calves. There were several calves all separated by their ages. The youngest would suckle on your fingers if you offered them the opportunity and they were VERY cute! (but who doesn't find baby animals cute?)
After that, we visited the dairy cows that were waiting to be milked. It stunk really badly but we learn a lot. For example, we learned that the cows are always pregnant because otherwise their milk would dry up. We also learned about what they feed the cows, (fermented corn and hay). Lastly, we visited their cow "maternity ward". Most of the pregnant cows stay out in the pasture until they are ready to calf; then they bring them into the barn and monitor them until they give birth.




Overall, it was an enlightening and interesting experience, however I don't think you'll find me, or any of the other campers, wanting to have a dairy farm in the future.




Can't wait for the rest of the week!!

3 comments:

AngelaWalkerJewelry said...

What a big tractor!

Terri said...

Looks like everyone is having fun down on the farm. Aren't the baby calves cute.

Diane said...

Okay - that can't be pleasant to have to be pregnant all the time!!! I wasn't surprised when I heard they fed the mama cows fermented corn and hay. Human nursing mothers are encouraged to drink beer - also a fermented drink!!