Monday, February 15, 2010

The best day on the farm

On Feburary 15th Monday I visited a farm with my dad and brother. We went to McClelland's Dairy at Petaluma which is 75 miles from our home. It took 1.5 hours to reach this place. This barn has 800 milking cows, 20 bulls, 500 calves and 4 baby goats.
First I went to the office. There I met the dairy owner Jena. Jena took us to the barn. First in the barn I saw calves. In the barn to my right side most of the older calves were taking rest and on to my left the younger calves(2-3 months) were all active and eating their food. I showed my love to these calves by patting on their head. I got near to the baby goats and all the baby goats ran towards me. Even though it was the first time I met them they were still kind to me. Some calves tried to trick me. The calves came out and when I tried to touch them they backed off. I showed sign to one calf to come towards me with my hand but the calf backed off and said, "moo" . It meant, "what do mean of come hear?". It really knows the sign language! So, I din't know what to do. Then when I went near another calf which was really really lazy! At first I had no idea why it did not come near me.
Then we went to see the big cows getting milked. They had machine which gets attached to the area of the cow where it produces milk. It pinches that area and the milk comes out. The milk comes out through a tube and gets collected in a container. The cow had a chip in its neck which is read by a computer to know how much milk the cow can produce. The machine stops milking the cow once that amount is reached in the container. Jena said we could pet a cow which is 5.5 feet big!. She got a big Jersey cow to pet. My brother got scared seeing that cow and he ran towards my dad. I said, "don't worry it doesn't bite it is a herbivore". Then I asked Jena if I can feed the cow. Jena said, "yes" and got some grass and handed it to me. I kept the grass in my hand and gave it to the cow. The cow first smelled it and later ate it. So I asked Jena, "why did it first smell instead of eating it" Jena said, "because it just makes sure that it eats its own food and not something else". Now I asked Jena if I can feed the baby goats as well? Jena said, "sure" and I went back to the barn where the baby goats were kept. I fed the baby goats with the grass that Jena gave me. My brother was little scared so he put the grass next to the bucket of water while I was trying to save the fly which was stuck in the water by blowing in the water. To me it was like a video game!
My dad went to Jena's office and got some butter at the same time I found out why the cow was so lazy. The cow was lazy because it's eyes were red. It indicates that it was tired.
We all left from the barn and went back home.

1 comment:

  1. Seems like a good education trip for you and your little brother. As I said earlier, your narration style only keeps getting better. Sometime from now, you should start doing podcasts ... that is record yourself narrating and post it in this blog. It will be fun to hear you as well :)

    Love,

    Thaiyyan mama.

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