Field Trip to a Dairy Farm

Today Carter's class had a trip to Cagle's Dairy Farm. I was one of the drivers, so I took Alex and Aaron along. Alex has loved cows for a very long time, so I figured he would be thrilled to see some cows in person.

We started off with a demonstration of the milking process (and a little summary of the change in milking from when the dairy started with 40 cows milked by hand to the present). The kids had a chance to stick their fingers in the milking machine and to also watch as a cow was milked.
After the demonstration the person asked if there were any questions. Carter raised his hand and asked "How does the milk get inside the cow?" It threw her a little but she replied that once a cow has a baby they make milk, but how that milk was made she wasn't sure :)

After the demonstration we saw how they pasteurize and homogenize the milk and bottle it. When the employee asked what they do to milk after they get it from the cow one of the kids answered "put the flavoring in".

Alex thought this was pretty interesting, but, true to his love of everything baby, he kept asking when we got to see the baby cows. He said that Aaron needed to see the baby cows.

Then it was time for the hay ride.

Alex, Sam and Carter (I think the sun was in his eyes)

Aaron loved the whole trip

One of the stops of the hayride was a pasture where the pregnant cows are taken for a few months before they give birth. They had a black dog that hearded the cows to one side of the trailer (food was stashed under the trailer to get them to come close) and then the other side. Alex was thrilled to see a cow so close.

After a few more stops, the hay ride was over and the kids got to feed the goats. Carter did great--Alex thought it was fun until the goats actually tried to get the food out of his hand--then he threw it on the ground and backed up fast!
After the goats we moved on to.....the baby cows! Finally Alex could stop asking where they were was happy. We first watched them feed one of the baby calves with a bottle.
Then the kids were given some cabbage to feed the calves.
Once again Alex was more excited by the idea then when the calf actually tried to eat it out of his hand--Alex would throw it on the floor (where Carter would pick it up and feed it to the calf) and then run to get some more cabbage to feed it. Carter finally showed Alex he could put the food over the side of the pen and not have to touch the calf.

A picture of the 4 of us.

After we were finished we took a bathroom break and washed our hands. The dairy gave everyone a pint of milk (regular or chocolate) to drink with their lunch. Alex chose chocolate and drank the entire thing. This may not seem so amazing, but since he got over his lactose intolerance last summer, he has NEVER had more than a sip of milk...I was so amazed I had to take a picture.

see that mostly empty milk carton next to Alex? So amazing, hopefully it is a turning point and I can get him to drink some milk occasionally!

It was a fun day--by the end we were tired and ready for the air conditioned car. On the way home one of the kids I had in my car tried to convince me to just drop him off at his house instead of taking him back to school "do you have my mom's cell number? you could just call and let her know you dropped me off!"....ummmm..no.

After we had been home a while I was cleaning up toys and I found one of Alex's toy cows. It has a little button you can push to get the mooo sound from it. I started pushing it and asked Alex if one of the cows had followed us home. He ran to the window and looked in the back yard, certain he would see one. Finally he realized that it was just me and was happy to see his own cow.

I just had to throw in this picture of Alex that I took this morning--one of the best pictures of Alex I have taken in a while--I love his smile.