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Most farms look pretty much alike although dairy farms have a
couple of things that are different. A dairy farm is
like a mixed farm. The dairy farmer usually grows feed
for his cows, so he needs a lot of the machinery that a crop
farmer needs. He is also a livestock
farmer because he is raising cows for milk. This means
that he needs pastures and
barns for the cows. |
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The picture above is of a tractor. Tractors
are one of the most important pieces of machinery that a
farmer uses. They pull spreaders, wagons, and other
equipment like the wagon below. For more
equipment, you can click here. |
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Farms have different buildings, too. At this dairy farm,
the building you see [above right] is where the cows stay and
are milked. The silos are the tall structures that are
rounded at the top. Silos hold the grain or corn that
they will feed the cows. Many times this grain or corn
is grown right on the farm. |
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There
are a lot of different kinds of storage places on a farm. The
two round buildings in the picture on the right are used to store
soybeans that are used in the animal feed. Storage areas like
this one are kept dry so that the soybeans do not sprout or decay. |
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This rocket-shaped storage bin holds the protein
stuff that the farmer adds to the cow's food. It gives the cow
vitamins and minerals that it won't get by eating its regular food.
This costs the farmer thousands of dollars a month. This is one
reason why farmers try to grow a lot of their feed. Whatever
they grow, they don't have to spend lots of money to buy. |
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We wondered what this big, beautiful storage tank held.
We looked all around. We posed in front of it.
Then the farmer told us it was full of cow MANURE! They
have a system where the cows go to the bathroom in troughs,
or empty channels. A machine pushes this manure into
pipes that take it to this big storage tank. The farmer
will keep this manure until the spring when he will spread it
on the fields to make them grow better. |
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