820—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June IS, 1984
Youngsters enjoy field trip to Berks Co. Jersey farm
The dairy princess, Debbie Price, entertained the children
with her song on dairying. Kids sang along and listened in
tently.
jrse was not too excited about all the attention. Although he received hundreds
of carrot pieces the hands kept moving so that he had to find the carrots. His feet were
also picked up many tiems so that the children could see his shoes nailed to his hooves.
He took the occasion with great style however, as he gave many children their very first
horse ride.
The children loved feeding a calf and much to the calf's dismay kept moving the bottle
to other hands for “their turn."
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MOHRSVILLE The end of the
school year means class trips for
most youngsters. In Berks County,
as in many other counties, a tour of
a dairy farm remains one of the
favorite field trips for nursery
school, kindergarten, and first
grade children.
The children in the pictures are
touring the Phillip’s Jersey farm in
Mohrsville. Although small, with
only 40 cows milking, the
dairyman stressed the efforts that
the farmer takes to give the
children a premium glass of milk.
The children are allowed to hand
milk a cow, witness milking in the
milking parlor, follow the milk into
the milk house, travel through the
bam to the feed bunk and loafing
area, look into the silo and smell
the haylage, feed a calf, pet the
larger calves and the sheep, and
ride a horse or pony cart, before
being treated to an ice cream cone.
The Berks County Dairy Prin
cess, Debbie Price, R 1
Douglassville, was also on hand to
sing a dairy song for the children
and review the naturalness and
nutrition in milk that the farmer
had discussed with them.
This farm hosted over 300
children from the larger city of
Reading, and the towns of
Leesport, Greenfields, Mohrsville,
and Shoemakersville. The children
loved it.
Highlights of the tour for the
children seemed to be trying to hit
a bucket with a squirt of milk from
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the cow; holding a pair of horns
that were recently cut off a bull;
seeing a large aspirin given to an
unwilling cow; and riding a horse
or pony. Kittens and a pet goat
were also on hand to entertain the
youngsters.
The parents who accompanied
their children were also very in
terested in the farm way of life, the
expenses with the dairy and field
work, and the many inspections
and certifications a dairy farm
must meet.
When the kids first got off the
buses, everyone held their nose.
They were told, “Farai people
think it smells strange in the city
too.” It was obvious that the kids
didn’t think the country was too
bad, because when the teachers
said it as time to leave
very tame Jersey cow submitted to hundreds of tiny
fingers trying to get a squirt of milk into a bucket. The
children tried over and over again and many parents were
unsuccessful too. After a short lesson, the bucket did show
some milk droplets. Everyone agreed that a farmer must hate
when the electricity goes off during a storm. In the milking
parlor they were amazed at the amount of milk that the cows
had stored in “her white part."
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Robin Hoffmaster, Mohrsville, assisted the farm family in
dipping ice cream cones for all the children and parents. The
weather was hot and everyone welcomed the ice cream.
EVERYBODY wanted to STAY,
The farm family enjoyed the
tour too. Although the family’s pre
school daughter was not impressed
with all the excitement around her
home, she did share her kittens
and helped to hand out cow erasers
and pencils as souveniers to the
visitors. Throughout the tour, the
children were told that these cows
were Jerseys, not Holsteins as on
most farms. The differences were
discussed and pictures of the other
breeds were shown. After one class
was finished with their picnic
lunch on the lawn, the dairy farm
wife thought that she would test the
kids and see what they remem
bered about the tour. She asked,
“What kind of cows do I milk?”
The children unanimously shouted,
“AMERICAN.” - RP