Zoom goes Virtual

Have you ever been on a virtual dairy  farm tour?

I have watched a few and now I can tell you that

we have hosted one  with the technical help from Midwest Dairy

  to highlight dairy and  celebrate  the Arkansas  Farm to School 

program  during October.

As stated on the Arkansas Grown  website:

" Arkansas Farm to School activities improve public health, 

strengthen the local economy and communities, improve food access

 and food abundance for all, and protect the environment."

As Arkansas dairy farmers we were honored to share  from down on the

 dairy farm where nutritious milk and dairy products

are produced for our Arkansas students and their families.

Here's the link for the virtual tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbthCIWw0Lk

It's been my experience through the years, the favorite 

part of the dairy farm tour is visiting the baby calves in the hutches.

It was also true for the virtual tour!

On the day of the tour, this baby was two days old and drinking milk

twice a day from a bottle. The students actually named her

Zoom!

What a perfect name!  We thought it would be fun to 

share how she will grow and change over the next two months.

Just like all of our baby calves, Zoom received her mother's milk in

a bottle for the first three days. That first milk is so important because it

contains colostrum that provides antibodies to aid her immune system in

fighting illness. After those three days, we taught her to 

drink milk from a bucket.  She was a fast learner!

Zoom is now  two weeks old.

She drinks milk twice a day followed with a small

handful of sweet grain. 

If you look close, I think she's smiling at you!

                                                         

                                               The highlight of my virtual farm experience was 

                                                the gift of thank-you letters from Sheridan,AR 

                                                    written by Ms. Caldwell's 1st grade  class.

                                                       I'm so happy that Zoom went virtual!

Arkansas Grown Fruit Smoothie

One of our workshops at the Arkansas Farm Bureau Leadership Conference was a cooking workshop promoting the use of Arkansas grown foods.Our cooking expert, Arkansas Cooperative Extension Agent Leigh Ann Bullington, was highlighting  Arkansas fruits and vegetables. It didn't take the dairy farmers in the room too long to point out that milk was also a featured Arkansas product!

It would be hard to have a smoothie without dairy products and the featured fruit at the workshop was strawberry. The strawberry smoothie  was delicious and made us all look forward to trying all the other Arkansas fruits that will be available soon.

Arkansas Grown Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients:

1/2 cup fresh or frozen Arkansas grown fruit

  (blackberries,blueberries,strawberries,peaches

     or other fruit of your choice) no sugar added

1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup low fat milk

1/4-1/2 cup ice, to desired consistency

Directions:

Add all ingredients to the blender pitcher and mix until desired consistency.

Tip: If you think it needs to be a little sweeter, you might add a little Arkansas honey!

Dairymom's Thankful Thursday

Last week I was invited to give an update on county government issues to the Bentonville Early Riser  Rotary Club. Since it's June Dairy Month, it seemed only natural to include a little dairy info,too! 

Rex introduced me to the group and explained that our  friendship  began when I worked for him in the drug store during my high school years. It was the first time I had the opportunity to give Rex his proper thank-you for being the reason I became a dairy farmer. If I hadn't worked for him in high school, Ryan's mother would never have given me a chance with her dairy farmer son! 

I'm thankful for all the members in my Bentonville community that mentored me  in serving others  such as my piano teacher,Araminta, my Girl Scout leader,Marilyn, that led us   from 2nd grade till I graduated, and for Rex, the local pharmacist, that taught me that the customer is always right !

I'm thankful to be Arkansas Grown!

Arkansas Grown

Arkansas Grown is a  branding label developed by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture to assist Arkansas farmers in promoting  products grown in our state. When I found this Arkansas Grown  bumper sticker tucked in my Foodie Friday swag bag at the Arkansas Women Bloggers Conference, I couldn't help but think about our dairy farm and the high quality milk produced every day for Arkansas consumers.

       A big thank-you to Arkansas Grown for sponsoring the Foodie Friday portion of the conference,
       for helping Arkansas farmers promote our products and for providing me with this fun bumper sticker!

                                                           

                      Our Holstein dairy calves are Arkansas Grown  on our third generation dairy  farm!

The milk that our Arkansas Grown cows produce is processed at the local Hiland plant for Arkansas consumers,

                                                                   and if that's not enough,

I'm an Arkansas Grown (born,raised and educated in Arkansas)  farmer

 living down on the Arkansas dairy farm!

Dairymom's Thankful Thursday

Today I drove to Little Rock to attend the Arkansas Farm Bureau Winter Commodity Meeting and finish up our policy resolutions procedure that was postponed due to icy winter weather in December.

 

I had a lot of great conversations with friends from across the state and was happy to receive the latest information about farm policy and issues that affect us on the farm.

 

 

I'm thankful for the leaders of  Arkansas Farm Bureau

that work together

 

 

to analyze problems and seek solutions to help achieve educational improvement, economic opportunity, social advancement, and promote the county, state, and  national well-being.

 

                                                                                  
                                     Most of all, I'm thankful God made a farmer just for me!