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January 6th: Dairy Farm

We all visited a dairy farm on January 6th. This farmer had six milking cows, six calves, and one bull. The farmer makes cheese and yogurt to sell at a local market. We got to milk the cows and help him make both cheese and yogurt. 

CoWs

The milking begins...

First the farmer; Crisley, got the cows from the pasture

He put them in the headlocks and tied their legs

He said he's gotten hit in the face too many times by their tails, so now he ties those up as well

Then he washed the utter off with water

Before he started milking

We each got a turn to milk one of the cows. I wanted to try it so I sat on the tinny wooden stool and proceeded to look at Crisley with a very confused expression on my face. 

Crisley got the message across on how to properly milk a cow, even though I couldn't understand a word he was saying

Now this is where I should mention a sort of bad turn of events. The cow being milked behind me decided it was acceptable to poop in the middle of her milking. I think this cow didn't properly understand the consequences of ejecting such large amounts from such a height onto a concrete floor. I apparently didn't either until I heard the gasps from others at a safe view-only distance. My response time for removing myself out of the splatter circumference was below average. As you can imagine, I then felt like an official dairy cow farmer. I mean, I can not only say I know have milked a cow, I can also say I have been poop on by one. I have the stained shirt as to prove it.    

I did not let that incident get in my way, I got right back to it and kinda felt like I got the hang of it, not nearly as fast as Crisley though.

Crisley milks all six cows by hand every morning. It takes him an hour and a half to get 50-60 liters of milk! I was amazed how fast he was, he definitely knew what he was doing.

I know in this picture you can't see the poop that has been splattered on my back, but trust me, it's there.

Milk!

 

This farmer does not inject antibiotics into his cows. He uses the natural antibiotic in the calf's saliva. He told us that this makes for better quality milk and healthier cows. This innovation was what I used for my RLO in class. The cows are also only milked in the morning and during the time they sustain a calf. They are not milked during the nine month gestation period. The cows are then milked once a day until their calves are seven months old. They are then weaned and the mother cows have a two to three month resting period where they are not milked before starting the process over.  

We got to see how his process works each morning on two of his cows. He brings the calf to the mother and allows it to milk for a minute while using his hand to make sure the calf's saliva gets on every teat. He then ties the calf out of the way and milks the cow. When he's done, the mother and calf get put back in the pasture. 

Hungry baby cows!

Too cute!

After we finished milking the cows, Crisley showed us how he makes cheese every morning.

Smoothing the curds

After you stretch it out, you start at one end...

and start rolling

and keep rolling

until you have a ball

that's half a kilogram.

Then you place it in a bag to be sold!

I think everyone had a great time at this farm even with the early hour..

it was especially great playing with his adorable children!

His little boy (I think 4 years old) followed him everywhere, it was very cute to see how he wanted to help is papa and be just like him. Such affection shown from a father to son made this farm my favorite of the trip.