Dairy Barn

Here we have another view of the Dairy Barn, before heading indoors to see the herd. I am adding this to Tom's Barn Collective. Looking at the map of the property given to me upon entry, I realized after the fact that I had missed a couple of exhibition spaces in this building, in areas away from the cows. Oh well, there's always next time.

The herd consists of several different breeds. When they're all in here, they're in tie stalls. When the weather's warm enough, they spend their time out in pastures, only coming in for milking in the afternoons. The calves get first dibs on the milk from their mothers, and the rest of the milk is sold as part of the national supply. Calves are off in another section I'll show you tomorrow. Female calves end up joining the herd, while male calves will be sold to other farms after a certain age. On the odd winter day when it's mild enough, they get time outside while their stalls are cleaned and fresh straw is put down for them. And there's a technology involving a low electrical current that prompts them to step back to relieve themselves away from the straw. Workers come through replenishing their hay as needed, and water pipes feed into bowls between the stalls. There is even the sound of birds chattering away, and one sees them amid the pipes- though how they get inside the barn is another matter.

Panels on the walls and over the stalls detail milking, cow biology, breed types in this herd, how much they eat, and their summer pastures. One also makes note of the fact that a previous barn at this site went up in a fire. Each of the cows have names, marked above their stalls with their breed type.

A section of stalls nearby is set aside as a maternity ward. This is a Canadienne breed cow named Adele. She was lying quietly the first time I came by, and then having some hay when I came by afterwards. Her time for giving birth was coming up, and so she was placed down here and checked in on regularly by farm staffers.