Mmm, Mmm, Milk
From the Cow to the Table.
How Does My Milk Get Here?
Where Does Milk Come From?
• Milk comes from cows.
How Do Cows Make Milk?
• Farmers grow or buy the feed cows eat.
• Cows must drink 8 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk.
What Do Cows Eat?
• Cows eat:
– Corn– Hay– Grain
How Is Corn Grown?
• Farmers plow and harrow the field to prepare it for planting.
• The corn is then planted into the ground by a machine.
• In a few weeks tiny corn plants will begin to grow .
How Is The Corn Harvested?
• In the fall, the farmers chop the corn into wagons or trucks. Sometimes the corn will be picked by a special machine.
• The corn is then blown into silos, made into a large bag, or dumped into a big pile.
How Do The Cows Eat the Corn?
• The cows eat the entire corn plant; Kernels, cob, and stalk.
• The plant is chopped up and fed out to the cows.
How Is Hay Grown?
• Hay is just grass that is mixed with other plants like alfalfa, clover and timothy.
• Some hay can be just grass.
How Is The Hay Harvested?
• The hay is mowed onto the ground.
Hay
• Sometimes the farmer will chop the hay into hayledge.
Hay
• Other times, the farmer will dry the hay on the ground.
• After the hay is dried it will be baled into round or square bales.
How Is The Hay Eaten?
• The cows can either eat the hay when they are in the barn being milked or when they are out in the pasture.
• Square bales are fed out to the cows when they are in the barn. Round bales are fed out when they are in the pasture.
What About Grain?
• Most farmers buy their grain from a local feed store.
• Grain is delivered by a truck that blows it into a silo.
• Farmers then give each cow a measured amount of grain.
How Is the Cow Milked?
• Each cow is hooked up to a milking machine that milks them.
Where Does The Milk Go?
• The Milk then travels from the milking machine, through a pipeline in the barn and finally into the large bulk tank in the milk house.
What Happens Next?
• After the bulk tank is full, a milk truck will come and pick up the milk.
• Most farmers sell their milk to a co-operative; and they will process the milk to be sold.
You Finally Have Your Milk!
• After the milk leaves the plant, it is sold to the grocery stores as many of the products you enjoy.– Milk– Cheese– Yogurt – Ice Cream
