Mobile Dairy Classroom Shows Belmont Co. Fairgoers Where Their Milk Comes From
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - One of the more unique activities at this year's Belmont County Fair is the Mobile Dairy Classroom that is presented by Southland Dairy Farmers. The mobile classroom is a dairy trailer that hauls a dairy cow named Clover, with the goal to educate the public of where their food comes from, how it's made, and show them the milking process.
Megan Day, operator of the Mobile Dairy Classroom, has traveled across Virginia and Maryland to put on demonstrations at schools, fairs, and festivals and said that the Belmont County Fair is her first time doing a demonstration in Ohio
She plans to host more programs in the Buckeye State
"I'm just happy to be here to promote the dairy industry," she said. "We encourage folks to have their three servings and to thank a farmer."
Day suggests that people should have three servings of dairy products each day.
"My favorite way to get three servings a day is to have milk with breakfast, cheese with lunch, and some ice cream after supper," Day said to the crowd during the event.
"But I live on the road so sometimes I have ice cream for supper, just don't tell my mom," she joked to the children in the crowd.
The demonstration held gave the crowd information about how the milking process happens by showing a live demonstration of Day milking her 800-pound Jersey cow, Clover. She added that when you think of cows you think of the black and white cows called Holstein cows which are much larger than Clover, typically weighing 1,500 to 1,800 pounds.
She then told the audience that there are a plethora of types of dairy cows, naming a few such as Guernsey, Brown Swiss, ShortHorn Holstein, and Jersey.
"All of these breeds produce the milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, and butter that you and I get from the grocery store," she said.
Day added that although all dairy farms have minor differences, the major similarity they all have is that they want to have happy cows on their farms because happy cows produce more milk. Day then joked saying that her full time job is working at the Southland Dairy Farmers Mobile Dairy Classroom Operator but her second full time job is to keep Clover happy.
She then showed the crowd the milking apparatus then hooked Clover up to it and went through each step showing how to milk a cow. Clover produces 70 to 75 pounds of milk a day. The industry standard for the dairy industry is that once the milk is out of the cow it'll be in the stores within 48 hours.
Cows usually keep a body temperature around 101.5 degrees so when the milk leaves its body it's about 100 degrees. Once the milk is out of the cow's body, it's placed in massive stainless steel tanks where it will be refrigerated and agitated until it reaches less than 40 degrees. The milk is picked up daily by a milk truck and delivered to the local grocery stores.