Celebrating June Dairy Month by Opening our Farm

Here I am by our farm sign ready for visitors

This year we opened our farm to the public every Saturday in June in celebration of Dairy Month. We’ve never done this before so didn’t know exactly what to expect. We spent the spring planning the logistics, building a farm-themed playground, promoting our event and sprucing up the farm.

Garrett and I set up pans of feed for the Dairy Diet Display

Jack prepares the giant sand box by building a road for the trucks

The first Saturday we had 17 visitors. The number of visitors grew each week and the last Saturday we had 96. Overall, 229 people came to visit our farm during our Open Farm Days in June. We had a variety of visitors with ages ranging from one-years-old to 90-years-old.

Jack (in the brown sweatshirt) tells visitors about these calves . . .

People enjoyed petting the calves . . .

  Visitors watched the cows being milked in the parlor . . .

I talked with people about our milking routine, milk quality and answered questions . . .

Most people liked touching the cows and letting them lick their hands, but this boy was not so sure . . .

The cows can be viewed in the parlor from upstairs or downstairs . . .

Our visitors toured the dairy on a hayride which showed them were our cows live . . .

Jack loved playing with our younger visitors and showing them around, here he is with three new friends . . .

Lad in the maternity pen showing visitors a newborn calf . . .

Me and Duane, my father-in-law, make a good team. Duane lead the hayride tours . . .

Jackie, Joe, Jack and Garrett greet visitors, collect admission and play cards, . . .

The Calf Corral Playground was a hit with the younger visitors.
Having fun in the straw . . .

Swinging on the horse tire swings . . .

Jack and Garrett play in the corn box . . .

Children also enjoyed playing inside in the Junior Dairymen Play Area . . .

Lad, Jack, Garrett and Grandpa Duane have a chat at the end of the day . . .

Lad and I appreciate the visitors who came to our dairy. We enjoyed showing people around and answering questions about what we do on our farm . . .

We look forward to hosting more visitors in the future! We’ll open our farm again this fall; every Saturday from September 17th to October 22nd. In addition, we also offer group tours, school tours and birthday parties by appointment. For more details, check out our website.