Author: info@discoverdairy.com

Dairy Fun Fact

Did you know that newborn calves weigh between 60-100 pounds at birth? The average calf weighs 90 pounds.

Share this fact with your students so they can see how their calf grows and gains weight throughout the program year!

Yogurt Snack Recipe

This 3-Ingredient DIY Yogurt Tubes would be an easy recipe to make in the classroom and freeze for a snack at a later time! 

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain yogurt
  • 2 cups fruit (blueberries, raspberries, mango, kiwi)
  • 1-2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup (optional)

Preparation:

  1. Place everything into a high-speed blender or food processor for 2-3 minutes and blend until smooth. If you are using frozen fruit, be sure to defrost it beforehand
  2. Using a small funnel, pour the flavored yogurt into squeeze tubes (or popsicle molds).
  3. Leave room at the top when filling to allow for expansion if storing in the freezer. Seal well.
View the Recipe

Display Your Adopted Calf in Your Classroom or School

Several teachers in our program have gotten creative in how they will display their calf and farmer information for the classes and school to see. Check out these great examples from Shelley, Lindsey, Ellen and Tiffani! We’d love to see your creativity and share it with others, too! Send your photos and stories to us at info@discoverdairy.com.

What Happens When a Calf is Born?

As you get ready for your calf announcement on October 15, it’s not too early to start introducing the world of dairy farming to your students! Here are a few videos and resources to help your class learn how calves are born and how they are cared for from their first day of life.

Age group? These calf-focused resources are ideal for all ages.

  • Live Birth Video: To see what a birth is typically like for cows, watch this video from The Calving Corner. From 5:06:44 to 6:10, you can watch the cow go into labor and deliver her calf – and even watch the newborn calf walk for the first time. You could ask your students this discussion question to get the conversation started: How much do calves weigh when they are born? (Typically, 50-100 pounds)
  • What Happens When a Calf Is Born? Have you ever wondered what happens when a calf is born? What do they look like? How big are they? Where do they live? Farmers go to great lengths to make sure that their cows and calves are healthy and well cared for. This article shares more about the birth process on the farm.
  • Calf Care 101 Video: How do dairy farmers take care of their calves so they can grow to be productive members of the herd? In this 15-minute video, Meadow Spring Farm in Pennsylvania introduces you to some of the calves on their farm and some of their calf care best practices.
  • Veterinarian Describes Calf Care: Dr. Mark Hardesty and Dr. Amy Benham share how calves are cared for and where they live in their first few months of life. Watch the four-minute video.

Virtual Farm Tours For Every Age Group This October

This October, American Dairy Association North East (ADANE) has two virtual farm tours planned for students of all ages! These are a great opportunity to introduce your students to dairy farming and what they’ll be experiencing through the year-long Adopt a Cow Program. Recordings of the tours are made available after the live events from ADANE

Register at the links below for one tour, or many! You will be emailed your custom link to join. Each tour is unique and LIVE. If you can’t join ADANE live, you will always be given a link to the recording on YouTube.

Grab your device of choice the day of the tour and join live. You can use a Zoom link, Facebook Live link, or YouTube link.

If you have questions about the farm tours, contact ADANE directly by emailing Kelsey O’Shea koshea@milk4u.org

Elmer Richards & Sons Virtual Tour

In this virtual tour brought to you by American Dairy Association North East, Farmer Marcus from Elmer Richards & Sons will explore three primary areas of the farm: where the calves live, where the cows live, and where the cows are milked. There will be check-in questions after each stop to engage students. 

Access additional resources including lesson plans, vocabulary sheets, and all of the past tours!

Date: Thursday, October 31
Time: 10:00 a.m. ET
Length: 60 Minutes
Location: New York
Questions: Click here to learn more.

Age group? This farm tour is ideal for Pre K – 5th grade.

Deep Dive Virtual Tour

This is a “Deep Dive” tour of Elmer Richards & Sons, featuring specialists along with the farmer such as veterinarians, nutritionists, or environmental scientists. Students will get a closer look at how farms use technology and experts to provide the highest care for their animals and land. Check-in questions after each stop will engage students. Additional resources including lesson plans, vocabulary sheets, and past tours available here!


Date: Thursday, October 31
Time: 11:15 a.m. ET
Length: 60 Minutes
Location: New York
Questions: Click here to learn more.

Age group? This farm tour is ideal for grades 6-12.

Sign Up for the Virtual Tours

Celebrate National Farmer’s Day on October 12

Did you know National Farmer’s Day is happening this week on October 12? Here are two creative ways to celebrate!

  • Chef Meets Farm Special Video
    We celebrate our hardworking dairy farmers not just on National Farmer’s Day, but each and every day of the year!

    The Chef Meets Farm special features Emmy award-winning culinary producer and chef, Anthony Contrino, and farmer Nate Chittenden of Dutch Hollow Farm. What happens when a city chef travels to a farm to cook outside of his element? Watch to find out!

    Age group? This video is open to all classrooms but it is ideal for middle school students.
  • Write a message to your host farmer. You’ll be finding out who your host farm is in only two days on October 8! Once you do, your students can celebrate National Farmer’s Day by using our Contact Your Farmer tool to send a personalized message to your host farm. The tool allows you to mail handwritten letters/drawings or send an e-message to the farmers. *Note: Our host farms love receiving mail, but they may not have time to respond. Please know that they appreciate all of the fan mail!

    Suggested messages: 1) A thank-you message for being your host farm 2) A few things students are excited to learn 3) An appreciative message about how farmers spend so much time caring for their land and animals.

    Age group? This tool is open to everyone but is ideal for elementary and middle school students.
View the Contact Your Farmer Tool

Dairy Fun Fact

Did you know that newborn calves start “moo-ing” shortly after birth? Within a few hours they will be walking around and find their voice!

Share this fact with your students as you introduce your adopted calf to them this school year.

Homemade Butter in a Cup

This BUTTER IN A CUP would be an easy recipe to make in the classroom and send home with students for them to share with family in making fall recipes and desserts.
Ingredients:

  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream (cold)
  • 1 oz plastic cups (with lids)

Preparation:

  1. Pour It: Pour 2 tablespoons of heavy cream into each portion cup. Place the lid on each cup, and distribute to students.
  2. Shake It: Shake the container until butter forms a soft lump. Continue to shake until buttermilk separates out of the lump and the container contains a solid lump of butter and liquid buttermilk. The process should take 3 to 5 minutes.
  3. Strain It: To strain, pour off or drink the buttermilk, leaving only the solid butter. You can save the buttermilk with future uses, like baking!

Serve It: optional: Remove the lump of butter and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

Click here to view the recipe.

Create a Gender Guessing Activity

While you wait for your announcement about your adopted calf, many teachers have planned creative gender prediction and guessing game activities with their students. Encourage your students to cast votes or use sticky notes to visually display their predictions (boy or girl) on the board. Take a look at how a few teachers have done this!

Elementary and Middle School Students Tour U.S. Dairy Farms Through Field Trip Grants

A Total of 69 Grants Were Awarded to Classrooms Who Planned Field Trips to Dairy Farms

A group of 69 elementary and middle school teachers from a total of 22 states, including Pennsylvania, provided their students with hands-on learning experiences at local dairy farms this spring. The teachers, who are enrolled in the Dairy Excellence Foundation’s Discover Dairy program, received dairy farm field trip grants through the Dairy Excellence Foundation, PA Dairymen’s Association, and Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin. The grants, which amounted to more than $30,000, allowed more than 2,900 students to tour dairy farms in their community and talk firsthand with dairy farmers and their families.

During the farm tours, students discovered how farmers care for their cows, conserve their natural resources, and produce nutritious dairy products. Teachers also used the farm tour field trip as an opportunity to build connections to their educational curriculum and local community.

“These dairy farm field trips give students the opportunity to get on the farm and expand on what they’ve learned through their Discover Dairy lessons and activities. Nothing is more memorable than receiving an up-close look at a dairy operation, especially for those students who have never seen one before,” said Brittany Snyder, Dairy Education Program Manager at the Dairy Excellence Foundation. “Congratulations to these teachers for receiving grants that could help them plan hands-on learning experiences on local farms.”

Funds from the dairy farm field trip grants can assist teachers in paying for busing, farm tours, lunch, or dairy treats. Any classroom currently enrolled in the Discover Dairy program is eligible to apply, with several grants designated specifically for Pennsylvania and Wisconsin classrooms.

The farm tour field trip grants allowed classrooms to make meaningful connections within their communities. Through these hands-on learning experiences, students gained an appreciation for:

  • How important dairy farming is to their community. “The generous grant from Discover Dairy enabled 25 first-grade students to visit a working dairy farm where they learned about different types of cows, what cows eat, and their favorite dairy products. The students were also able to meet undergraduate students majoring in dairy science who work at the farm. The trip really highlighted to students how important dairy farming is to our community. It reinforced the care and process used to get milk from cows to our tables at home. I cannot wait to participate in the Discover Dairy program again this year. I appreciated how organized and well thought out each email, activity, and update was.” –Sarah, a first-grade teacher from Virginia and farm tour field trip grant recipient

  • The work that goes into dairy products on grocery store shelves. “The grant provided a wonderful opportunity for my pre-k students and their families. It gave us the opportunity to see the calves and young animals on the farm, make butter, create a fun cow craft, and take a wagon ride to the dairy barn and observe cows being milked. Students and their families had a lot of great questions and learned about what it takes to run a dairy farm. We all left with a greater appreciation for the hard work and dedication that goes into putting dairy products onto grocery store shelves.” –Martha, a pre-kindergarten teacher from Maine and farm tour field trip grant recipient
  • Making their own food. “We visited a working dairy farm in Pennsylvania, Walmoore Holsteins.  I bought a read-aloud story [about dairy farms], and we made our own butter. We loved all of the opportunities this grant afforded us.” –Tanya, a fourth-grade teacher from Pennsylvania and farm tour field trip grant recipient

  • Interacting with animals. “My pre-kindergarten students traveled to a local dairy farm in Texas. When we pulled into the driveway, our students began clapping on the bus. It was the sweetest gesture of gratitude expressed by four and five-year-old students. Our students got to interact with baby calves and each student was given the opportunity to milk a cow. We are very grateful for the grant that enabled us to fund this field trip.” –Doedee, a pre-kindergarten teacher from Texas and farm tour field trip grant recipient

  • Setting foot on a farm. “My third graders loved going to a dairy farm in Illinois! For many of the students, it was their first time setting foot on a farm. Each child had the opportunity to pet a cow, feed a calf, feed a goat, and milk a cow. They loved this experience.” –Elly, an elementary school teacher from Illinois and farm tour field trip grant recipient

Discover Dairy, managed by the Dairy Excellence Foundation, is an engaging, interactive, multi-level educational series that shows upper elementary and middle school students where milk comes from and how dairy farmers contribute to our communities. Applications for upcoming dairy farm field trip grants will be available on November 1, 2024 for teachers who are enrolled in the Discover Dairy program. Learn more about the program and grant opportunities at www.discoverdairy.com/take-trip-dairy-farm. For more information, contact Brittany Snyder at bsnyder@centerfordairyexcellence.org or call 717-346-0849.

The Discover Dairy program also includes the popular Adopt a Cow program, which impacts more than one million students each school year and connects classrooms directly to a calf from a progressive dairy operation. Teachers who enroll in the Adopt a Cow program will receive an introductory update this fall with details about their calf. Classrooms will receive monthly updates, including suggestions on components of the Discover Dairy curriculum that teachers can incorporate into their virtual or in-person lesson plans. The sign-up period closes on September 15, 2024. To enroll in the Adopt a Cow program, visit www.discoverdairy.com/adopt or contact the Dairy Excellence Foundation at 717-346-0849 for more information.

Discover Dairy is an educational series managed by the Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation of Pennsylvania in partnership with American Dairy Association Northeast, American Dairy Association Indiana, Midwest Dairy, The Dairy Alliance, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Dairy Management West, Dairy West, New England Dairy, Dairy Farmers of Washington, American Dairy Association Mideast, Dairy Council of Florida, United Dairy Industry of Michigan, Maine Dairy and Nutrition Council, and Oregon Dairy Council.