Farm Tour

Holmes County, where we live, hosted a Farm Tour on Saturday, August 23, 2008. There were 10 stops throughout the southwestern part of the county. They included in part a nursery, bee hives, llamas and alpacas, a vineyard, FFA displays at the high school, and one of the most interesting was a dairy farm. Some of the scenes of this Jersey cow dairy are shown in the subsequent pictures. The dairy farm is currently milking 360 cows, twice each day. Because of the higher butter fat from Jersey cows, a pound of their milk produces about 30% more cheese than a pound of milk from Holstein cows.

Part of 360 Jersey Herd

This is a small part of the Jersey herd as the cows make their way into the barn.

Holding-Feeding Barn

This barn was empty when we arrived at the dairy farm. The next picture was taken about 10 minutes later.

Feeding Time

Cows are fed and held in this barn until it is their time to be milked.

The Milking Parlor

This milking parlor can handle 20 cows at a time. Three men handle the milking which is conducted two times each day.

Milking Time

These men keep busy with the milking of such a large herd. The milk is sold locally (about 3 miles from the farm) to Holmes Cheese. The cheese company comes once each day to transport the milk back to the cheese plant.

Two-Hour Old Calf

This little gal (the calf) was born out in the field and was unexpected. The girl rode out to get the calf on a 4-wheeler, holding it on her lap as she came back to the barn. (Two more pictures of the calf follow on the next screen).