An Utterly Mooving Experience

  It was an early morning for our aspiring chef's as the members of the 4-H Jr. Chef Academy Day camp left the office at 8 am on day 2 for a unique adventure.  You could say we had to milk our time for all it was worth today.  We travelled to Hillsborough to drop in at Maple View Farms.  This is a dairy farm that not only produces but also bottles and makes all of their own products.
  Your youth started the morning learning about the different parts of a plant.  Everything from how a seed grows roots, a stem, and flowers to the different parts we eat.  You might wonder why we would learn about this at a dairy?  As it turns out growing crops and various plants is very important at a dairy as we would find out shortly.  It is also important for aspiring chef's to know what is edible, and where our food comes from.
  After a lesson on plants it was time to visit with others who benefit from growing green stuff.  We went outside and got a chance to visit some animals with big personalities.  We met some chickens including Henrietta aka Darth Vader who actually met us at the front door.  There were some nice rabbits, a Jersey Cow (not a New Jersey cow) that has a llama body guard, a donkey and some goats that seem to think they are magicians.  Even the sheep had something to say as we learned their names, shedding habits, and sang some Ba Ba Black Sheep.
  Once we got done meeting the very friendly menagerie we went back inside to learn all about dairy cows and the dairy farm.   This farm has close to 400 Holstein Cows.  These are the best milk producers with each cow producing 3 gallons of milk at each milking.  The cows are milked three times a day so each cow produces 9 gallons of milk a day.  That's a lot of milk.  That also means that the cows need to eat a lot to make that much milk.  We learned that they eat hay, cottonseed, and silage.  They drink a bathtub of milk a day.  Silage is fermented corn that has been chopped up.  It used to be fermented in silos but now it is fermented in trenches.
  How the cows are raised and cared for was interesting but that was just part of the story.  This dairy farm is unique because they process their own milk, butter, and ice cream.  Most dairy farms truck the milk out but not Maple view.  That means you can get really fresh dairy products close to home.
  After we learned all about the cows and dairy it was time to see it in action.  We boarded the cadillac of hay rides and got comfy as we rode from the education center up to the pasture, the milking barn, past the processing plant, and to the nursery.  Our tour guide stopped and talked with us about the cows, about what happens when the cows get milked, and how they are brought to a birthing area and have a nursery for the calves.  It was really awesome and the cows were really nice.  they really liked having their pictures taken.
   We headed back to the education center after our tour.  There we made our own sandwiches and enjoyed the salads we made yesterday with Mrs. Janice.  The best was still to come as we enjoyed fresh Maple View Ice Cream for desert.  It was creamy and yummy and the very best part of the day.
  After all the fun and learning it was time to board the vans to head back to Robeson County.  We had an utterly fantastic time and can't wait to try some of what we have learned.