Wyoming County has more cows (48,700 in 2015) than people and June is Dairy Month so the first weekend in June is the perfect opportunity to visit a local farm. Especially since everything but the food is free.
This year's chosen farm is McCormick Farms in Bliss, NY. Check out the video of their farm on this facebook page.
McCormick's is unusual as this year's A-P will be held at 2 locations - they deal with potatoes (headed to Wise Potato Chips!) at one location and milking cows at another. Apparently the calves are raised at a third location but they've trucked some in for the tours.
There are kids activities, tours of the diary barns and milking parlor, an exhibit on the "life" of a potato, ag vendors, food, music, etc. It should be a fun day with decent weather (unlike the 93F last weekend!). I may not get to see too much of the activities as I'm working "parking" which is no where near the fun stuff so that means last nights orientation was twice as fun.
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| Each cow has a chip in her ear that logs how much she eats, walks, drinks, and how much milk she gives. It's like a Fitbit for cows!! The distance a cow walks is unique to each gal and can help determine when she is getting sick, in heat, etc. |
The only picture I took was of the "merry-go-round" milking parlor. This was super cool as it's pretty new technology. The girls are trained to walk into a slot while the machine is still in motion. As she nears the end there is water dripping onto the machinery which not only cleans the machine (have you ever watched a cow chew her cud?) but since she doesn't want her head to get wet she backs off the machine.
It also has fail-safes to protect the cows. We watched one cow not back out in time or try to get on again, not sure, but the machine stopped before she got stuck, backed up a little and then she backed away. Apparently 1 new cow in the crowd can figure it out pretty fast but it took a good two weeks of misery for the whole herd to learn the process.
What are you doing for Dairy Month?
6 comments:
This sounds so cool! Dairy farming has come a long way. Be sure to grab some ice cream this month.
what a good idea to open up the farm for visits a great way for kids to learn that milk comes from cows and potatoes grow in the ground and not the supermarket. I was amazed to read not long ago that some city kids have no idea where things like this come from lack of info from the parents must be to blame
Wow--I have never seen a cow merry-go-round like that.
I eat my fair share of ice cream--homemade, of course!
Wow, that was so cool to see and read about the milking carousel. Very clever. I'll do my bit for Dairy Month and eat lots of cheese!
That is amazing! Also, I never knew there was a Bliss NY. My hubby's name is Bliss ; )
Great story... xox
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