Visit to the Dairy Farm

Yesterday after our hike up Cedar Creek Canyon we went over to a families dairy farm from church. They are currently milking around 68 cows twice a day and breed cows year round. We took Max to show him where milk comes from and he had a fun time running around seeing the farm.

These cows just got milked.

Each cow has a computer chip in them and they get scanned as they come in to get milked. Each cow will give them 60 to 70 lbs of milk per milking episode. One gallon of milk is 8 pounds.

This computer cadget monitors their milk intake and can produce all kinds of reports for them.

Happy cow ... getting milked! All their milking cows are currently "expecting" and their gestation period is 9 months.

Bro. Heiner inside the milking barn - a little stinky - they do 12 cows at a time. We watched their process for a couple of rotations.

Some of baby cows that are a few months old now.

The Heiners also raise they own wheat and barley on the farm. They raised their boys on the farm so they would learn hard work and what it means to work 7 days a week. None of their sons are taking over the farm. Farming is difficult and the Heiners milk all year round so they have an income. They have their holding tank emptied every other day and all their milk is taken to Ririe, Idaho to a creamery that makes cheese. Thank you Heiners for showing us where our milk / cheese comes from!