Day 4 Movie Stacking Hay in the Dairy Barn

We had just tossed hay down from the lofts above the barn where the cows live and we needed to organize and stack the hay.

Movie from Day 3 In the Dairy Cow Barn

This was Day 3 in the Dairy Cow barn.  We were getting the cows ready to go outside into the rain for a shower so we could clean out their stalls.

Back in Boston...

Hey it is Shelbbie. The farm was awesome.  I did not realize that I spent 5 days without any electronics!

P.S  the food there was AWESOME

Taking hay from the attic

We have just finished dropping hay from upstairs and we are organizing it.

As you can see the cows are still trying to eat it!  -- Jardel

Day 4 on the Farm!

After seeing the farm's cheese being made yesterday, we learned how to make our own cheese.

First you heat raw milk and then you add an enzyme from a calf's stomach and it separates the milk into curds and whey.  The enzyme is also what adds flavor later on.  Then you cut the curds and press the mixture to separate them.  This is what David is doing in the picture. It doesn't really look like or taste like the cheese we eat yet, because it hasn't been aged.

 Walking the path to the barn.

We went to visit the horses by the Hagadorn's house.

They are the people who started this program for city kids 18 years ago! 

 Chris and Kaitlyn taking turns holding one of the ducks.

The cows eat so much hay we had to get some more from the hay loft above the milking cows.

 Raven in the hay loft.

Terrell and Cohen helping the hay we threw down get to the right place in the milking barn.

The hay landing in the milking barn -- the cows are already trying to eat it! -- Jardel

Heading back to our dorm on the path.

After working all week, we played a Jeopardy game to review all of the things we'd learned.

The goats

Hi it's David again and I'm in Vermont! We have to take care of animals on the farm for our work.  Today we had to clean out the goat barn and they got to run around while we worked.  It was fun.  There is Zack, Cody, Aunt Tootise and many more.  So while we were working the goats were running around and having fun. In the picture it shows how the goats play.

Day 3... Chores, Ms. Herzig's Dad, Cheese, and More Chores!

Wake up early for morning chores!  Get Clementine's snout in your face! 

Bluegrass wants to lick Carlos' pants! 

Three different colored eggs from the chicken coop. 

 This is my favorite heifer Juno.  I like her because she is not like the other heifers.  She doesn't try to take other cows' food.  She's patient and waits for it.  -- Raven

We love the cow faces we see every day!

Carlos took a picture of me and Martini.  Don't lick my face!  -- Jardel 

 My dad came to meet the students, see the farm, and talk about Vermont and how to play the harmonica.  They had heard he could play Rockin' Robin, so he played it for them and gave them a chance to try making notes, too.  -- Ms. Herzig

First try at playing the harmonica.  -- Jardel

I blew so hard into the harmonica that almost lost my voice.  -- Shelbbie 

This is when we all tried playing the harmonica to see if people could hit a single note on it.  I did well hitting five or six notes at once.   -- Cohen

Astronaut!!!  This is actually a white suit for cleaning cheese.  You have to wear one to keep bacteria away from the cheese.  -- Jardel 

The cheese wheels were really heavy and you had to get used to the smell, but near the middle you got used to it and you got used to turning the cheese and picking it up.  -- Kaitlyn

 Peeking through the cheese shelves.

This is when I had to clean a year old cheese wheel.  It was smelly, old, wrinkly, but it was still cheese.  -- Dean

We had to wash the cheese and this is the way you do it.  You have to take a cheese cloth (a rag) and dip it in salt water and then wring it out so it doesn't drip anymore.  Then you have to scrub off the top of the cheese, then you have to scrub the sides.  Then you have to pull the cheese out so it's peeking out of the shelf so it can air out.  -- David

It's kind of tricky to feed the cows because they're trying to get at the food while you're pouring it down. You're lucky if your cow is leaning in the other stall next to it, trying to get another cow's food.  -- Kaitlyn

The milk inspector was telling us about the milk and the milk pump.  He was pointing at the DHIR card that every cow has.  It tells how many pounds of milk they've produced and how many calves the cow has had.  Also it tells the cow's score which has to do with how well the cow is producing the milk and if the milk is good.  -- Carlos

I brushed Lenore's tail and her hip.  People have to do that to clean the cows off because they can't do it themselves.  Also, in the winter they grow more hair to keep them warm and in the summer they don't need it.  So we brush it to help them get rid of the extra hair.  -- Shelbbie

More Pictures from Day 2!

 Heifer cows eating the grain that they think tastes like candy.

 This is Clementine and Bruce.  Clementine is not happy that Bruce has been staying in her pen lately and will be glad when he is gone!  He has tusks and is a very messy eater.

 Jardel and Aunt Tootsie.

 The chickens!!!

Today we had to work as a team to get the calves to get out of their living area while we cleaned it. 

Raven taking a break on the fence.  (The heifer barn is in the background!)

Animals at Our Barn

You've seen some of our pictures, but I'm going to describe what's happened on our trip so far.

On Monday, we started out with a place that's easy.  It was the Heifer Barn.  A heifer is a cow that has not had a calf yet.  It's also already older than one year.  We fed them and petted them.  All of the heifers are cows (girls), except there is one bull named Martini.  He is there to get the heifers pregnant.

There are also calves in another part of the farm who are almost heifers.  They are outside of the heifer barn and they are already weaned off of milk.  They only eat grains and pellets and hay.  Before they go to that space, while they are weaning, they are kept in the small animal barn.  That's where all of the small animals and the non-weaned calves are.

There are five calves in the small animal barn that we take care of.  All five names are Infinity, BlackJack, Vegas, Josie, and Raspberry.  The five calves each have their own pen.  Also, they have different eating plans because they're at different stages of weaning off of milk.  Some eat more grain than milk, and that's usually when they're older.

There are other small animals in the small animal barn: Lucky the bunny, Clementine the pig, goats, chicks, and ducks.  The goats have names.  They are Aunt Tootsie, Eva, Zach, Cody, and Aurora.

There's also a dairy barn with Jersey cows.  The dairy barn cows are different from the heifers because the dairy barn cows have already had a calf and the heifers have not had a calf yet.  The dairy barn cows get milked about seven minutes two times a day.  They often get milked by machines rather than by hand.  They do that because it's faster on the machine and the hand way takes longer.

These are a few of the heifers.

This is me and a heifer that has the same name as my mom.

This is Anette smiling for the camera.

Pictures!

At the end of our first day, we had to feed the heifers.  When we finished, before walking back to the dorm, we took a rest on the hay!  We learned two different ways that hay is stored.  You can keep it in a stack or wrapped around in a circle.  -- Shelbbie

The goats were really cool to be around because they were little and they weren't too jumpy.  I've seen older ones before, and they were more jumpy.  These goats were calm when I reached my hand out to pet them.  They felt really soft.  --Kaitlyn

Ahhh!  Cow tongue!  Hi, this is Raven and I can't believe the cows think the grain is candy.  This is a Jersey Dairy cow.  We fed them yesterday -- hay and grain.

 Today we cleaned the area where the cows who were just weaned off of milk live.  We cleaned up the peed and pooped on hay.  We also gave them fresh beds.  We took care of all of the animals this morning.  Even before breakfast, we fed the animals and worked hard, so we worked up a big appetite.  -- Terrell

This is when me and the class went to see some of the cows that are pregnant and were ready to be fed.  I like petting the cows because they will lick you.  -- Cohen

Sue made feeding the heifers look easy, but it really wasn't!  -- David