School Field Trip: Indian Trails Dairy Farm - Byron Center, Michigan

The school that I enrolled both of my kiddos in for pre-kindergarten was really awesome!!  I did school of choice.  Which meant that I had to drive them to and from school every day (for a total of two years since they are not the same age).  But, it was absolutely worth it!!!  The school is a small building that was an elementary school in the past.  Now it houses the pre-k and pre-school kids for the school district.  They do many things to make sure their kids are all treated equally, respectfully, and have many opportunities that most schools have given up on.  For example:  free school activities; lunches from the garden they grow starting in the spring (or from local organic farmers/suppliers in the area) and they are all made on location.  

In the spring the kids were taken on a field trip to a local dairy farm.  Both years that my kids attended this school I was able to chaperon.  I found it interesting enough to blog about it ;-)

Indian Trails Dairy Farm in Byron Center, Michigan:

Having fun petting one of the farm cats.

One of the groups witnessed the birth of a baby cow.
Kind of glad that wasn't my son's group!

Learning about the mix of products that the cows are fed.  Very educational!

Touching and learning more about one of the grains the cows are fed.

Cows hanging out waiting to be milked.
When they are taken in to be milked this area is cleaned out.
The first year I went on this trip it was hot and the barn smell was horrible!
One kid threw up in front of the girls I was chaperoning...
This time it was much better!
There was nice breeze that day.

The mix of food they eat.

The milking barn!

Lots of milking going on here!
It's nothing like you see people doing from the old days  (hand milking).
People are barely needed for this process!
Computers track, by cow, how much milk they have given!
There's also a sanitation process that takes place with the cow and the equipment.

Love this dog!!  It's so fun to hang out with farm animals - so loving and well trained!

A little education on chickens and eggs

Time to test the product!  I think my son was the only kid that picked white milk over chocolate milk ;-)

Checking out the tractors

This barn is awesome!
I recently saw a painting of this barn at a local art contest (Art Prize 2013)!