We have had a great time this year with All Field Trip University. If you have been reading our blog you know we've seen a ghost town, been stranded on a bus for a million hours, and seen some incredible art at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts. It's been a great time, and I had a hard time believing that this week could top last week. I was wrong.
Today we climbed aboard our very air conditioned school bus and headed over to Mesa to see the Superstition Farm. What an adventure. We began our tour with a bit of information about dairy cows. We were told what they eat, how much they eat (50 lbs per cow per day), and how much milk they produce. We saw how big their pills are when they are sick, and saw how big the needles are when they have to have a shot. The pills were at least 2 or 3 inches long and an inch thick and the needles were 5 times the size of a needle we would have! Neither pill or shot looked particularly pleasant. We looked at the types of foods they eat, and we learned that each of the 1000 cows on the farm have a large magnet in their stomachs' to help if they should swallow any foreign things. There were buckets of ground wheat, distilled corn remains, and the most surprising, cotton seeds. We were told that the cows eat a lot of things that are left from other things, such as the corn. It was incredibly interesting. These cows are vegetarian cows. Afterwards we took a hay ride around the grounds and saw where they keep the hay and grains for the cows. We also saw a big tank that was filled with molasses and learned that the farmers use that to mix additional vitamins for the cows. On our tour we spotted a baby calf that had just been born. It was pretty exciting.
After our tour we found ourselves standing outside a pen of assorted animals. There were two miniature goats, two big goats, a donkey, and a sheepish sheep named Dory. We all got a few handfuls of food and got to feed the very hungry and greedy animals. A few of us also got to brush them. In addition there were a multitude of chickens that were calm enough to hold, and a couple of bunnies that we got to cuddle.
The highlight of the trip came when one of the farmers noticed that yet another cow was in labor. We were lucky enough to walk over to the fence just in time to see the baby be born. It was a beautiful baby girl and the farmers let us name her. As a group we decided the best name for the new baby calf was Summer.
No trip to a dairy farm is complete without tasting something from the cow, so we bellied up to the milk bar and had ourselves a delicious taste of flavored milks such as peach, cherry vanilla, orange cream, and lime. We also had the pleasure of having a taste of ice cream. It was a perfect way to end our perfect tour.
Before heading back to the bus, we made one more trip to see Summer. At just a few hours old she was able to take a few steps. We were all very happy to see her wobble around. We thanked the very nice people at the farms for a great day and climbed back aboard our bus. Many thanks to Superstition Farms for a wonderful day.
-Ms. Liz
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