The Dairy Farm

Imagine my delight when the permission form came home for Selby's first Kindergarten field trip to a local dairy farm. I signed us both up right away. And last week we boarded a big, yellow school bus and took a bumpy, noisy ride out to the country.

Experiencing a dairy farm with 5 and 6 year olds was hilarious. They seemed to be mostly focused on the smells and the sizable eliminations of the cows. But me... oh, I was enchanted.
We fed the calves from half-gallon bottles. The power & appetite of these little ones would make any nursing mother flinch!

We made fresh butter at a picnic table on the breezy front porch, and sampled it on crackers, along with little cups of farm fresh, whole milk.

We toured the totally sustainable farm by foot and by hayride, viewing the free roaming cow pens, the milking facilities and process, the fields of grains, and the compost site.

And then, by some miracle, we were given the gift of watching the birth of a new calf. An advocate of natural birth, I could hardly contain my excitement that not only was I watching this most natural of events, but that rows of school children were witnessing it as well. A collective "eww" rose from the children as the calf finally emerged, followed by a group cheer.

The mama cow proudly cleaned her new babe as we all quietly crept by for a peek, then left her to bond with her little one. It was a field trip no one will soon forget!