Piper and I took a trip to Fair Oaks Farm with a couple of my teacher friends and their kids. Fair Oaks Farm is a working farm- actually about ten of them combined. They have an educational center filled with interactive exhibits, a birthing barn where you can watch live births, and more! 
We started out in the birthing barn. Everyone was anxious to see a baby calf being born. This is the stoplight outside the barn. It tells you what is happening inside, and how close the mama cow is to giving birth. When we arrived, it was on yellow- which meant the birth was close to happening. Hooves were able to be seen, and that is exactly where we started. The first time we went we saw two births, one boy and one girl.
Mama gets some assistance giving birth this time.
Piper and her new friend watch as the mama greets her new baby.
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| Baby calves are taken from their mama soon after they are boon. Piper expressed concern that he would miss his mama. :( |
Next we went on the bus tour and saw one of the neighboring farms where the cows live. We learned about the feed and how it is grown and stored. I was surprised that although they pride themselves on being "green" they did not allow their cows to graze and only fed them "feed"
Cows are milked three times daily. They are easily trained and line up on the carousel to be milked. It literally turns with the cows on board, and they know how and when to get on and off by themselves.
Exiting the milking parlor.
Piper feels the pipes leading in and out of the tanker room. One is hot and one is cold.
There was a large play area outside for the kids to interact with.
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