Caution! This post is not suitable for the Lactose Intolerant!

Well, there we were Saturday morning getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. Missy brought up the idea of going to Fair Oaks Farm. What a great idea, I thought. Fair Oaks is one of the largest dairy's in the country. Four million glasses of milk are produced by their 30,000 cows, everyday! This dairy created a venue where people could not only learn about the dairy industry, but experience it first hand.

We learned so much! We saw the milking carousel which holds 72 cows at a time. It was pretty neat how the cows learn to get on and off the carousel. I called it the "Cow-Go-Round." The cows wear a collar that lets the carousel know which cow is being milked, how much milk she produces, and how many steps she took since her last milking. Pretty cool stuff!

We also learned that the dairy is able to use everything the cow produces, including the poo. The entire complex is powered by the methane produced from the moo poo! Forget ComEd, they have CowEd!

It was very amazing to learn that the cows on the farm give birth to about 80 calf's everyday! They had a very cool maternity/nursery barn. Out front of the barn was a traffic signal that alerted visitors of baby calf being born. If the light was red, nothing was happening. If the light was yellow, there were hoofs visible. If the light was green, the calf's nose was showing, and that meant the baby cow would soon be born. They had a real neat observatory where we watched one of the babies being born. Kaitlyn was adorable as she softly coached the mommy cow, by saying things like "you can do it", "your almost there, just a little more." She is such a girl!

We ended our adventure with some homemade ice cream in the Fair Oaks Gift Shop. It was a great end to a great day!

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