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Dairy
farms are farms where cows are raised to make
milk and milk products like cheese, ice cream, butter and whipping
cream. We went to a
local dairy farm to see what it was like—up close.
It wasn’t what we expected.
The farm that we visited had registered
Holstein
cows, known for high amounts of milk production.
Our visit was during a very cold day in January, when farmers
sit inside and relax. Right? |
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Milking the
cows. [Picture to the right.] Once the machines are
turned on, the milk goes through tubes until it reaches a big
milk jar. It is checked to be sure the milk is good and
then it goes into the bulk tank where it waits for the milk
truck to come and haul it away. The milk truck will take
the milk to a dairy, where it will be pasteurized and
homogenized for health safety. |
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The
milk tubes are attached to the cow's udders.
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The big bottle is checked all the time to make sure that the milk
doesn't have anything bad in it. It goes into a big tank [dark
picture] where a tube of milk is taken out by the milk hauler so
that they can test it when they get to the dairy.
Click on the
pictures to see them bigger. |
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Feeding and
taking care of the young calves. [Bottle feeding for the new
ones, a bucket of milk for the older ones.] |
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Taking care
of the crops when the weather is warmer. [Sowing, growing,
harvesting]. Checking out the feed that is stored in silos and
grain bins; doing maintenance on equipment. To lower food
costs, the dairy farmer grows part of the food for the cows. |
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Sanitizing
the hoses, connections, and pipes again. |
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Milking the
cows again around 4:00 p.m. |
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Checking milk
to be sure that the butterfat content is right and that there isn't
anything wrong with the milk so that the hauler can come to get it. |
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Feeding cows. |
The farm has 210
cows and 3 bulls. The main home farm
is 180 acres but they actually farm 700 acres when you count the outlying
fields.
As you can see, the picture that we had of
farmers taking it easy in the winter, was definitely not true.
Even though the job is seven, long days a week, Mr.
Makarevich seemed to be…. loving it.
When we told him that, he said, “You have to love it, to do it.”
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