Bonding with cows: an afternoon at Meadowood Farms.

As you may recall, last summer I milked a cow for the first time. This summer, I figured it was time to bottle-feed a bunch of calves.

At the beginning of July, Melissa and I spent an afternoon at Meadowood Farms in Lodi, Wisconsin, where Melissa conducted her Master's research in finding the best nutrition plan for calves using a robot feeder (more on that later). The family-owned farm belongs to Sandy, Tim, and Greg Enge. The farm is home to 450 cows, which is considered a medium-sized dairy. 

First of all, the view was great:

Okay, now for the cows. We were greeted by cow #2598, also known as Olive, who Melissa raised as a baby. She is now all grown up and works as a show cow at various fairs.

Olive says hello.

Left to right: Holstein, Brown Swiss, and Jersey show cows.

Olive is a friendly gal.

Taking a selfie with a cow is challenging.

After hanging out with the show cows, I was pretty excited to meet some barn cats:

Mama was a leg climber.

And her baby was a snuggler.

We saw large groups of cows walking to and from their milking area. They are good at following each other in lines.

Then, it was time to head to the calf barn. Calves ages 1-66 days old live in this barn. Calves under a day old have their own area where they get bottle-fed. Prepare for cuteness.

Lounging calves.

Up close and personal. This baby was excited to be fed.

The calves drink from a DeLaval automated feeder, also known as a robot feeder. Calves are trained to use the feeder, then they can walk up to it for milk meals. Each calf wears a collar so that the feeder knows when he or she has had enough to eat, giving them just the right amount of milk. Calves drink anywhere from 1-3 gallons of milk a day.

The feeder!

Supper time.

Then, it was time to bottle feed the 4 calves who were less than 1 day old. 

Melissa (wearing her "Moo Expert" shirt) was very excited to mix up the formula.

We fed the babies! It's much harder than it looks. They were young, wild, and hungry, but didn't know much about using a bottle.

I did alright for a rookie, but I ended up seeking help from the expert.

PUMPED.

Then, it was time to head out, but not before I got a quick video of feeding time. The Meadowood cows live in "free stalls," so they can go wherever they want, whenever they want. They're living the good life.

It was a great, moo-worthy day with the cows!

Resolution complete: I milked a cow.

A lot of people get really into New Year's resolutions. I don't. Yet for 2014, I made one that I 100% intended to follow through on: I wanted to milk a cow. Many people have asked me why I wanted to do this so badly. Here is my reasoning:

1. I LOVE BARNYARD ANIMALS.
2. It's good to try new things.
3. It would be an awesome experience to blog about.

I'm an urban girl. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in the busy, typical, cookie-cutter suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina. You know the opening sequence to the show, Weeds? Yeah, that's my hometown: the traffic, the strip malls, the Land Rovers, the soccer moms… all are very familiar things to me. I'm a city dweller to my very core, and I think that's why farm life fascinates me: because it's different.

Cue the Green Acres theme song.

I met Farmer John Dougherty of Farmer Johns' Cheese at the East Side Farmers' Market in May. I gathered that by his large variety of delicious cheese for sale, he likely had access to a great deal of cows. So I asked if I could milk one. He said yes! Two months later, I was off to the outskirts of Spring Green, Wisconsin to visit the official Farmer Johns' milking barn.

Let's get one thing straight: there's more than one Farmer John (hence the apostrophe). It's currently operated by a father and son (both named John), and before that, it was operated by the generations that came first (yup, you got it, also named John). This is a true family farm business, right down to the name.

My friends Cherie and Caitlin came along for the ride, which took us through some winding country roads to this really awesome waterfall:

Beautiful!

Then, we arrived at John's milking barn. He walked us through the cow-filled building and told us all about his family farm, the milking process, and all things cows!

The lineup: Farmer John gets the cows into the barn by leading them in with corn (they love it).
See the pipes above the cows? That's where the milk goes.

After it goes through the pipes, it ends up in a huge tank.
We all climbed up the ladder to peek in.

It holds an insane amount of milk.

After our barn tour, we got to meet two baby calves, Jenny and Ryan:

Beyond adorable.

Then, it was milking time. The cows are milked by machine, but of course we had to start off old school. Farmer John chose Faith as the best cow for us to milk. He knew that her mellow temperament would work in our favor and that she was less likely to try and kick us (he has a lot of cows in this place, and many can get sassy at milking time). He noted that you always have to let the cow know when you're at her side and going to milk her. This way, she's less startled. Of course, I had to get the experience on tape:

Then Caitlin milked Faith!

And Cherie, too! 

Old school milking: check. Then, Farmer John let me put the milking machine on Faith. It's made of 4 little suction tubes that go from the udders to the pipes in the barn.

Just making sure I had everything right.

Voila! I attached the milking machine and Faith was ready to go.

A lot of cows had to be milked, so we went to the front of the barn to check in on the tank. It was very loud in there, but I fit in a quick video of "THIS IS WHERE THE MILK IS GOING! HERE'S THE MILK!"

The entire milking process takes about 30 minutes from the first cow to the last. The cows get milked twice a day (6am and 6pm), and Farmer John noted that he tries to keep the cows in the same order each time so that their schedules are consistent. I could really tell that he loves what he does and cares about the well-being of his cows, which of course makes me want to keep buying more and more of his cheese.

Speaking of the cheese, to purchase some amazing dairy goodness from Farmer John, he can be found at the Dane County Farmers' Market (near West Washington Ave), as well as many other local markets.

I'd like to send a huge thanks to Farmer John for letting us visit, Cherie and Caitlin for putting up with their quirky friend, and of course, this lovely lady:

Many thanks, Faith!

Alpaca Farm Trip: Fun. Fluffy. Fabulous.

As it has already been said on this blog, I'm an animal lover. And what can I say? Barnyard animals are the best. I was born and raised in the suburbs, so spending time with animals other than cats and dogs is a novelty to me. I never miss an opportunity to pet a furry friend. After visiting the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival in April (blog coverage here), I fell in love with alpacas. There really isn't a more profound way for me to describe them: THEY'RE SO FLUFFY!

When my friend Andrea proposed a group trip to Galpaca Farms, I immediately said yes. Today, a group of 11 knitters from Stitch 'N Bitch Madison went on a trip to Mt. Horeb and visited Mindy Huitt and Linda Kosovac's gorgeous farm home. They have 25 alpacas at their farm, and each is named to honor a deceased relative (names include Harriet, Aileen, and Aunt Helen). They spin yarn from their alpacas and each skein has the name and photo of the source alpaca.

As an extroverted animal lover, it didn't take me long to make a few friends, and Andrea took a quick video of me bonding with my new gal pal:

Alpacas are incredibly photogenic, so I took quite a few photos. It was tough to narrow it down, but here are my favorites (as always, I recommend clicking the photos for larger views, as these animals are ridiculously cute):

Posing with my 3 new friends.

Mother and son. He's 1 day old!

Alpacas love sunbathing!

An alpaca says hi to a crowd of knitters.

Meet Betty, the Great Pyrenees. She's a skilled herder!

Anne pets a 1-day-old alpaca.

Snack time! Kristen feeds an alpaca a carrot.

Snacks!

More snacks!

Multi-tasking.

Group shot of the knitters at Galpaca Farms.
Top row: Caitlin, Larissa, Kat, Elysha, Polly, Cherie, Anne
Bottom row: Andrea, Yours Truly, Bronwen, Kristen

We certainly experienced a large dose of cuteness today. Thank you so much to Mindy and Linda for letting us visit the farm!

For more information about Galpaca Farms, please visit: www.galpacafarm.com or email Mindy and Linda at galpacafarm@tds.net

No need to be sheepish: lamb season has arrived!

The locals keep telling me that I still haven't experienced a real Wisconsin winter, and I'm content with this. Spring is already here, and at certain times, Madison has even been slightly warmer than my hometown of Charlotte, NC. Spring is my namesake (Aviva translates to "springtime girl") and by far my favorite season: a blend of rain, sun, flowers, and in Wisconsin: newborn livestock.

The A-Z Farm in Oregon, WI welcomes their spring lambs by inviting guests to come in for a meet-and-greet. Yesterday, I joined Scott, Elysha, and Abby for a trip to meet these adorable little fellas, as well as some other barnyard friends.

Chickens hanging out in their coop.

Piglets having lunch.

A male turkey showing off for the female turkeys (a handsome fella).

We walked up to a little coop filled with baby chickens, and much to my delight, one of the farmers let me hold one:

Look how tiny!

Then, we arrived at the main event: the lamb barn. The lambs were abundant, friendly, and greeting us with loud "baaaahs":

Spring lamb scoreboard.

Petting time for this little lamb.

My buddy Abby enjoyed making friends with the lambs.
She left the barn with a stuffed sheep that she appropriately named Baba.

Just a few fluffy pals hanging out.

Having some lunch!

The black sheep of the family.

Oh, the cuteness.

Sleepy time!

Before we headed out of the barn, we stopped by the Bee Barf Honey booth to sample some Oregon-made honey. Great name, huh? I couldn't resist and left with a little treat:

Looking forward to stirring these honey straws into my tea!

The perfect end to our Oregon excursion was a trip to the little downtown area for some lunch at DeBroux's Diner. Abby enjoyed their "gorilla cheese." It wouldn't have been a true Wisconsin adventure without a little cheese.