Spring is slowly emerging here in West Michigan. Birds are building nests and daffodils are blooming. With all this new life, this is often the time of year that kids start asking questions about plants, animals, and where their food comes from.
Parents are sometimes stumped for answers. Thanks to supermarkets and home delivery services, many children (and adults!) don’t understand how their food is grown or harvested. But here at Country Dairy we live by the seasons, and our daily tasks change from month to month.
Maybe you grew up in a rural community and want to pass on that knowledge to your kids. Or perhaps you know that care for the planet hinges on the next generation. Either way, spring is the perfect time to bring kids down to the farm and let them see firsthand the cycles of life unfolding.
Planting crops
One of the most important springtime tasks on a farm is sowing seed. If you don’t plant crops in time in the spring, you won’t be able to harvest them when you need them later. And we have over a thousand hungry cows to feed!
Here at Country Dairy, we grow 90% of all our cows’ food right on the farm. Our crops include oats, wheat, corn, and alfalfa. It’s important to wait until the soil temperature is in the right range. If seed gets planted too early when it’s still cold out, it’s likely to rot in the ground instead of grow.
Another important factor for crop growth is precipitation. When there’s a winter season with minimal snow, we farmers hope for a very rainy early spring season. This helps make up for the lack of snow runoff that normally hydrates the ground as it melts.
Caring for the cows
Modern technology has allowed dairy farmers to keep cow care pretty consistent year-round, but a few things do change.
One fun event that takes place here at Country Dairy every spring is the cows getting to come back to their pasture. A few of our specially chosen cows get released into our grassy pasture near our farm store after spending all winter sheltering in their barns. They jump around with excitement!
It’s important that we wait to let the cows out until there is enough grass for them to eat. We also give them some hay to round out their diet , too. This balances the health of the pasture along with the nutritional needs of the cows.
Another fact that may have changed since your own childhood is the birthing schedule on dairy farms. In the past, cows would be bred in the summer and then most would give birth in the spring. This allowed the busy farm families to get a two-month break in the winter from milking cows, because a cow is dry for the last two months of her pregnancy.
Today we breed our cows on a rotation, so that we always have some dry cows, some birthing cows, and some milking cows at any given time. While you might picture baby animals on a farm as a hallmark of springtime, the truth is calves are born at Country Dairy year-round.
Increasing staff
A final, crucial part of springtime on our farm is increasing the staff! This is the time of year when we hire more people to work in the farm store, give tours, and even run our bicycle rental program.
While we are a fourth generation family-owned dairy, we certainly couldn’t do what we do without our faithful employees. They truly become a part of our extended family by helping us care for our cows and crops and by serving up nutritious milk and delicious food in our farm store for our community and guests from all over the world.
If you want to share the joys of springtime on the farm with your kids, schedule a tour today by calling (231) 861 4636 x119 or emailing us at tours@countrydairy.com. Our regular tour schedule doesn’t start until after Memorial Day, so if you want to come sooner be sure to reserve your spot by planning ahead this spring!