Holland's Dairy

The boys' class went on a field trip in May to a local dairy.  Avery and I met them there and I was so surprised that this small dairy near our house supplies milk to Horizon Organics!  They have about 700 cows and the farm was super clean.

 We had three first grade classes on the trip and the kids had three stations to move through before the entire group toured together.  We started at the snack station.  The dairy handed out organic milk boxes and cookies.

The next station explained how the milk gets from the cows to the grocery store...and then the kids tried "milking" a cow.

Next we got to go into the actual "milking" room which was crazy.  Avery was getting a bit scared because the cow's rear end was not too far away so we didn't actually move into the room (it was at your own risk)...so I couldn't really get a good picture.

 We then joined the other two classes and got a tour of the barn, the cow hospital, and the "commodities" section.

The barn was really nice.

They feed their cows flax seed (on the left), hominy (on the right), alfalfa (I didn't take a pic but it was on the opposite side of this food) and some molasses!

 I have to say, after seeing their property and hearing how much water (50 gallons per cow per day!) and food (100 lbs per day!), and how much work is involved made me appreciate the cost of organic milk.  We got to see the calves before we left...so cute!!