Monday, May 6, 2013

Field Trip to the Dairy Farm

We made the trek to Calmar to the Northeast Iowa Dairy Center on Friday.  It was quite the day to say the least.  You would think that on May 3rd that we wouldn't have to worry about the weather, possibly some rain showers.  But snow?!  Someone really honked off Mother Nature because she thought a snow storm in May was a good idea.  In a nut shell, it was cold, it rained, it snowed, it was a mess, it was muddy, and the roads weren't the greatest.  But, hey, we still made it there and got to do everything that was originally planned.  (I have to admit that I didn't have the best attitude about the cold, messy tour!)

Here is a little snapshot of what our day consisted of!


We started the day off by creating our own little barns and a spinner behind the barn showing the animals that could live in the barn.  During this station, they also learned a little bit about 4-H.  I grew up in 4-H and loved, loved, loved all of the things that I got to experience and learn.


They put together cow puzzles and learned some dairy facts.  


We got to see the cows get milked!  They were soooo super amazed at this process.  It is so advanced now and the girl doing it had it down to a science.  Bless her heart for being able to keep working when she had 50 first graders peering in on her.


They got to make pudding and eat it too!  We put the concoction in the bag and they tossed it around their table to bring it to consistency. So much fun!


The baby calves may have been the all time favorite!  They were allowed to let one of the calves suck on their finger and pet it.    If you can see the little boots they had to wear over their shoes...they were a life saver but also too big so were some what of a head ache.  Taking them off was a little interesting as well considering we did nothing but walk through a muddy mucky mess around the farm.

Stay tuned the rest of the week!!!  I brought in my dad's incubator with 12 duck eggs that are only days away from hatching.   My kiddos are super excited and I am just a tad nervous about this whole process.  I am hoping they get out of their shells with no problems.  If not, my dad may be traveling from Hampton to Sumner in a hurry to save the little things. I was feeling pretty confident about it driving them over, as we hatched chickens all the time when I was little.  Then I got to thinking about how ducks are harder to hatch, how some tend to die, and how its beens a couple years since I've done this!  Wish me luck!!!



No comments:

Post a Comment