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Southwest Dairy Farmers brought its mobile dairy classroom to Kreitner Elementary School in Collinsville Thursday to show students where milk comes from.
Dairy farmer Ralph Keel shows students at Kreitner Elementary School in Collinsville how he used to manually milk cows like Grace, and why he no longer has to because of technology.
Second through fourth grade students watch dairy farmer Ralph Keel as he begins his mobile dairy demonstration Thursday at Kreitner Elementary School.
After cleaning her udders, dairy farmer Ralph Keel attached automated milking machine hoses to Grace, who was not bothered by the procedure in the least.
Using a laptop computer and a flat screen TV, dairy farmer Ralph Keel went through a slideshow presentation for students in Collinsville on Thursday. Behind him is Grace, a 750-pound Jersey cow.
How Now, Brown Cow? Kreitner students watched in wonder as milk flowed from Grace through the hoses and into a six-gallon jar. Within two minutes, she had produced at least a half-gallon of milk.
Ralph Keel describes the pasteurization process milk goes through before a brief question-and-answer session with the students to conclude the program.
Dairy farmer Ralph Keel stops a milking demonstration in Thursday after a few minutes Thursday, during which Grace the cow had produced almost a gallon of milk.
Dairy farmer Ralph Keel takes questions, not stories, from his audience Thursday in Collinsville. Students seemed most surprised to learn that methane from cows is now captured and converted into electricity.
Second through fourth grade students at Kreitner Elementary School in Collinsville left the school parking lot in udder shock Thursday morning.
The students had just finished attending a “mooooving” 45-minute assembly involving Grace, a 750-pound Jersey cow. Dairy farmer Ralph Keel led the presentation, with the help of a 40-inch flat screen TV on a swing arm and a laptop computer. A Honda generator stowed in the bed of the trailer’s pickup truck kept the power flowing.
Due to its participation in the St. Louis District Dairy Council’s Adopt-a-Calf program, Kreitner and nine other schools secured a spot on the mobile tour designed to show milk’s journey from cow to carton. The St. Louis District Dairy Council (SLDDC), in partnership with Southwest Dairy Museum, Inc., brought its Mobile Dairy Classroom to the school to give students a unique farm experience right in the parking lot.
“Field trips are an ideal way to show what happens on a dairy farm. But travel, budget and space restrictions can limit the adventure to only a handful of classrooms,” said SLDDC registered dietitian Maggie Cimarolli.
By bringing the dairy farm directly to the students, the school has no transportation costs and can allow more students to participate, she said.
Thursday’s experience included a presentation on dairy farms, cows and how farmers care for the environment. It also featured the opportunity for students to learn about the modern milking process. October is also National Farm to School Month, making it a perfect time to show agriculture in action.
Keel told the children they should daily consume three to four servings of dairy products, such as milk, cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt. He even championed chocolate milk as the fastest, best way for athletes to replenish vitamins and nutrients lost to exertion.
Speaking of nutrients, Keel told the students that the magic number is 13 that milk provides. He also listed off other breeds of milking cows, such as Guernsies and Holsteins.
Keel said farmers are among the original environmentalists. They don’t like to waste anything: water, grass, grains, soil, etc. The students seemed most impressed by the fact that farmers today even capture the methane gas that cows generate and convert it into electricity.
Keel said Grace is two years old, which equates to 24 years in human terms. He told the kids she makes six gallons of milk a day, but he cautioned that Grace is on the small side when it comes to milking cows. He has owned and milked bigger animals that weigh more, he said.
He told the students that cows must eat grains, seeds and grass and drink water to produce milk. They must also have produced at least one calf. He said cows must be milked twice daily to ensure they get all of the milk available. Cows prefer temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and he explained dairy farmers use fans as one of the ways to keep cows comfortable.
He said some dairy farms are becoming automated with robots milking cows. If Grace was part of such a farm, he said, she would wear a necklace fitted with microchip and the automated system would detect her when she entered the milking barn. The farmer could see her via his computer and check what her previous milk production has been. Should the robot milker go offline, the system will send a text message to the farmer that something was wrong.
The highlight of the session for the children was seeing Keel briefly milk Grace by hand before he attached the automated milking units to her udders. Besides being time-consuming and tedious, Keel said the biggest reason he doesn’t milk his cows manually is because using automation is cleaner and has less risk of contamination.
Once Grace was hooked up to the milking machine, a half-gallon of milk filled a nearby jar in less than two minutes, all while not hurting Grace. She remained very non-plussed through the session. Keel said her milk contains a high amount of cream, making it ideal for butter and ice cream producers. Cows have a body temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
After leaving the cow, milk goes on a temperature roller coaster as it is chilled to 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, during the pasteurization process, it is heated to 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any contaminants before it is again chilled for end users, like the students.
With just two percent of Americans connected to the agriculture industry, many students Thursday had only seen farming by watching it on a screen. Most students said they thought their milk was made at the grocery stores their parents visit.
“Virtual farm tours became popular when schools turned to online learning,” said Cimarolli. “They remain an efficient way to show what life on a dairy farm is like. But there is no substitute for seeing a live cow being milked right in front of you!”
The students had hoped to pet Grace, but instead settled for class photos taken with her.
Charles Bolinger covers Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Edwardsville Township and the Collinsville School District for The Edwardsville Intelligencer. A graduate of Webster University in St. Louis, he has been writing for the paper since 2018.