Fair Oaks Farm

August 2012

Fair Oaks Farm, Fair Oaks, Indiana.

Sometime in April or May of this year Charlee's school had an auction to help benefit the school. I, being the sucker I am, bid on this Fair Oaks Farm basket that included a giant sized stuffed animal bull and 8 passes to the Fair Oaks Farm. We finally had a free Saturday and figured we go check this place out before the weather got too cold.

We were able to see a calf being born in the "birthing barn". We were told that an average of 8 calves were born a day. They had a giant traffic light on the outside of the barn to indicate what was going on inside. If the light was red a birth was not in process. If the light was yellow a cow was in labor and if it was green, a cow was having a baby. The look on Charlee's face was priceless as that little calf was born. She could see the hooves hanging out but didn't quite understand what was going on. She was convinced that this cow had pooped out another cow. She would say, "That cow had a baby cow come out of his butt."

We were able to see the giant milking process which I thought was pretty fascinating. The cows line up and patiently take their turns walking on the giant rotating turn table, to get strapped to the milking machine and have their utters pumped for an entire rotation before being let go to wait for their turn again. What the life! Having nursed my kids (at least for a short while) I could feel these poor cows' pain! Having the life sucked out of me every two hours day and night. Oh, I could feel their agony! The looks on these poor cows' faces seem to show their true emotion. I could relate.