Fair Oaks Dairy Farm

Monday afternoon my in-laws, Brad, the boys and I all went to Fair Oaks Dairy.  The dairy operation itself is impressive.  They have approximately 10 different farm sites with about 3,000 cows at each farm.  They milk 3 times a day and use a 72 stall rotary milking parlor.  It takes about 8 minutes for each cow to make a rotation.  What impressed me more was how they have made it possible for the general public to learn about and experience different aspects of a dairy, still make it fun for adults and children of all ages and maintain biosecurity on the farm. 

Bus ride = no seat belts and happy kids!

Hello girls!

We went on a bus tour to one of the dairy farms and drove past the area where they keep feed, thru a free stall barn, past calves and into the parlor building.  Once we were in the parlor we went into an observation deck and watched the cows entering the parlor, getting milked, and leaving the parlor.  The tour was full of interesting information and the kids loved the bus ride and seeing all the cows.

Welcome to the world little calf

Milking time!

The entrance (left) and exit (right) on the parlor with the waiting line behind

Back at the main location they have a barn where you can be up close and personal watching a cow calve.  Vince and Joel didn’t really care to watch that for more than 30 seconds.  There is amphitheater type seating and it was a lot more fun for them to just climb the stairs and then find the door out so we didn’t bother anyone. 

Vince kept parking all the tractors in the shed

Joel was not happy because Brad was helping him...he needed the help to make it work

Flying high!

Joel didn't want his picture taken.  He wanted to jump!

Outside they had a big pillow to jump on, tractors to drive, a playground and a maze.  There was also a climbing wall and a small train to ride but lucky for me those were closed when we were there.  There was also a whole building full of educational stations.  You could watch a 3D/4D movie about milk and how it is made, ride on a “dairy go round” (parent powered and it was heavy), time your self milking a cow (Brad won against his parents and Vince...I was chasing Joel so I couldn't show Brad what it felt like to lose), a kid’s play area and a ton more stuff. 

Vince in an ice cream cone

Who is that silly looking kid? 

The Dairy-go-Round

Brad and Joel

Lucky for us it was a Monday so it wasn’t very crowded and the boys could run from area to area and back again without bothering anyone!  We ended the trip with a trip to the gift shop and had some ice cream, watched them make cheese and watched Vince introduce himself to random kids!  According to him they are his friends he just doesn't know their name yet.  It was a lot of fun and such a great place to teach people about the dairy industry and agriculture!

For the record Joel was wearing an actual kid harness on this trip and not a dog leash and the bouncy air pillow was a lot of fun!

Cow feed display