A Tour

Last week an area school visited our farm. It was our first farm tour and we really enjoyed it. Afterwards they sent us wonderful thank you notes, which let us know their favorite things about the visit. We will be sure to keep petting the calf and experiencing what the milking machine feels like part of future tours as much as possible. A couple of the notes had some questions I thought I would take a minute to answer.

Q: How old are the cows?

A: The cows in the milking barn range in age from two years old to around 12 years old.

Q: Can we visit you again sometime?

A: Of course!

Q: How many cows do you have on your farm?

A: We have 76 milking cows and 67 heifers and calves for a total of 143.

Q: Do you have any dangerous cows on your farm?

A: Well, all animals can be dangerous at some point, but we don't keep cows that are consistently dangerous. We don't want to get hurt.

Q: Is it fun on your farm?

A: We think so.

Q: How much time does it take you to do all your work?

A: On a daily basis there is someone working about 10 and a half hours of the day. During planting and harvesting that increases to about 16 to 18 hours a day.

Q: Did you buy the cheese stick or make it?

A: It was given to us by our cooperative to give to you. They are cheese sticks you can buy in the store. There are some dairy farms that process their own milk, but we don't do that.

Hopefully that answers everyone's questions. Thank you so much for coming to visit! Here is a picture of a couple of the students participating in one of the classes' favorite activities of the day, petting the calf. This one's name is Zion.