The Dairy Farm

One of the places they took us to is the dairy farm that James does some work at. He is in a master's program at Utah State and does studies on some of the cows here. It was very interesting. These first two pictures are inside the milking room. I love the look of frightened interest on Sophie's face. I don't think I've ever seen a cow this close before. They are huge! I also couldn't believe the size of their udders. These poor girls definitely couldn't wait to be miked. James was telling me that they can average up to forty pounds of milk per milking. Wow!

After we checked out the milking operation, we headed outside to check out all of the cows. It was so fun!! I think I enjoyed it as much as the kids. Scarlett was so thrilled with these little guys. She kept saying Wo, wo and MOO!! As you can see, her cousins Mason and Charlie are old pros at this place, hence they don't look quite as thrilled as Scarlett.

Sophie thought it was way too funny that this cow was trying to eat her shirt. It was so cute. All of these little calves were only about 2-3 days old. Some of them even had their umbilical cords hanging from them. Even though they were so young and small, I still couldn't believe the size of them, quite a large baby to give birth to.

I love the picture of this little guy. My lovely sister in law Malinda took all of these pictures. I took some too that day, but I just can't figure out how to get them from my camera to my computer. Oh well.

So this last picture is of a cow in labor. I felt so bad for her. It was about 9000 degrees outside that day and here she was all alone, in the heat, with a group of people taking pictures of her as she tried to push a giant baby out of her. Not the most fun way to spend your afternoon!