Growing up in Michigan I have been to my share of what I like to call, education farms. Farms where I can take the boys to hold baby chicks, see a goat and even pet a horse. However, last Friday, thanks to The Michigan Dairy News Bureau, I was able to tour a Michigan Dairy Farm.
We took a tour of Goma Dairy located in Marlette, MI which is run by the van den Goor family. Immediately I was impressed. Gertie van den Goor welcomed us and began to introduce her family and explained how her family became dairy farmers. She then went on to give us a little history about her family's farm. The currently milk 3,000 cows and take pride in their care for these beautiful animals.
Before we could begin our tour we were required to slip on surgical foot coverings. The purpose of the this is was protect the cows from any diseases we may track in. I thought this was very smart! Keeping healthy cows is important to to the milk production. As any mom knows, once a child brings a virus into the house it is very difficult to keep the other kids healthy. This seems to happen to us every November as the flu season starts to peek in the elementary schools. I couldn't imagine having to protect 2,999 other cows from getting a virus that starts in one!
We saw where the cow's feed was stored, then went into the barn. The cows were happily eating and paid little attention to the group of bloggers all snapping pictures of them.
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yoke
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg or all spice
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups Oats
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)
We took a tour of Goma Dairy located in Marlette, MI which is run by the van den Goor family. Immediately I was impressed. Gertie van den Goor welcomed us and began to introduce her family and explained how her family became dairy farmers. She then went on to give us a little history about her family's farm. The currently milk 3,000 cows and take pride in their care for these beautiful animals. Before we could begin our tour we were required to slip on surgical foot coverings. The purpose of the this is was protect the cows from any diseases we may track in. I thought this was very smart! Keeping healthy cows is important to to the milk production. As any mom knows, once a child brings a virus into the house it is very difficult to keep the other kids healthy. This seems to happen to us every November as the flu season starts to peek in the elementary schools. I couldn't imagine having to protect 2,999 other cows from getting a virus that starts in one!
We saw where the cow's feed was stored, then went into the barn. The cows were happily eating and paid little attention to the group of bloggers all snapping pictures of them.
After seeing where the cows spent most of their time we moved on to the milking station.
The cows knew exactly what to do and the workers were so fast! The the cows were hooked to a machine and the pumping began. What stood out most to me was that once the cows were attached to the milking machine, their milk was never touched by human hands! It goes right from the cow to the truck, fantastic!
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| Cows being milked |
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| Milk goes from the tubes down to the basement where it is pumped into more tubes |
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| In the basement, the milk is pumped into the large silver tube and moves to the cooling tubes. |
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| The milk goes directly into the truck! |
We ended our tour with a delicious lunch in the barn. I learned a lot form my first dairy farm experience and give a lot of credit to the people who choose this as a career. It is truly a labor of love. We were lucky enough to be joined by Dairy experts; Deanne Kelleher an registered dietitian, Dr. Ron Erskine a veterinarian and Katie Dellar Facebook's Dairy Mom. The knowledge they shared was invaluable!
What goes better with a warm batch of cookies then a nice tall glass of milk?! I decided to make a classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. The warm soft chewiness of this cookies is complemented so nicely by milk!
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg or all spice, baking soda and salt, set aside
Cream together butter and sugars
Add egg, egg yoke and vanilla
Slowly stir in flour mixture
Mix in oats, raisins and walnuts(optional).
Place a teaspoon sized drop of dough on a cookie sheet
Bake for 8-10 minutes
Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute
Remove cookies to cooling rack to complete cooling
It's Giveaway Time!!!!
The Cookie A Day Challenge is giving away a Get Moooving dairy gift bag that includes:
- A $50 MasterCard Gift Card
- A Complete Magic Bullet 17-piece Hi-Speed Blender/Mixer System
- Reusable Grocery Bag
- got milk? Baseball cap
- Dairy Themed Socks (adorable!)
To qualify for the giveaway you must:
- Like The Cookie A Day Challenge on Facebook and/or Follow @cookieaday on Twitter or subscribe to The Cookie A Day Challenge by email.
- Like the Michigan Dairy News Bureau on facebook (to have your facebook like count, please comment on the Michigan Dairy News page that The Cookie A Day Challenge sent you) or subscribe the The Michigan Dairy Bureau's You Tube Channel
- Comment on this post
Giveaway Rules
- You must be a US resident to win (sorry)
- You will get one entry for EACH site you like or subscribe to. Total possible entries 6!
- The winner will be chose at random
- Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of your Get Moooving Dairy Gift Bag.
- Contest ends July 31st, Winner will be notified by August 2nd.
- Good Luck!!
