Down on the Farm
What a day! We got off to an early start, departing school at 7:30am and arriving in plenty of time to help round up 10 lovely ladies and escort them down to the shed for milking with farmers Tim and Janice.
We learned all about the machines that help harvest the milk and were assigned our very own cow to milk. Everyone was slightly on edge and ready to run in the pit to begin with, looking for any slight sign that their cow's tail was raising in readiness for bad business!
After milking we followed the journey of our milk down the pipes and into the processing shed where it ran through a cooling system to take it down from 30+decrees C to just 5 degrees. We learned about the process of cleaning the machines after milking to ensure they stay free of bacteria using a combination of acid and alkaline washes on alternating days. The children went back to their milking stations and attached the cleaning machines and watched as water pumped through the system.
Much to the delight of the children, the cows had made a disgusting mess of their holding pen, so it was out with the power hoses!
There is A LOT to do on a farm, so we were off on a journey to the top paddock to retrieve a herd of 60 cows that had been "on holiday" for a while and needed checking over to help them maintain good health. On our way up the hill, we stopped and set up a temporary fence to help direct the herd in the direction we needed them to go. We also learned how important it was not to stand between the cows and their meal! During the health checks we saw the cows being checked for milk supply, mastitis and general health. We were completely intrigued by the milk of a cow with mastitis that came out looking kind of slimey and then proceeded to rise and turn bright yellow on the ground over the next few minutes. Disgusting, but strangely interesting!
It was at this point that the children fell madly and deeply in love with the world's friendliest cow, Amber. Amber was then treated to hours of attention, cuddles, extra food, and more cuddles!
By far the slowest of the herd, Amber needed some serious persuading to go anywhere and got herself completely off track on the way back to the paddock. Janice treated us to a little ride around the field on her farm vehicle to distribute the hay when we returned the cows to the top paddock. Of course Amber got the lion's share of the food!
To top off the most fantastic day, Janice and Tim invited us in to their place to show us how to make butter from the previous day's cream!