Celebrate National Farm to School Month

October is a perfect month for fieldtrips and farm tours. The Farm to School Program strives to connect schools to local farms, with the objectives of serving healthy meals in schools, improving student nutrition and  promoting agriculture, health and education opportunities to support local and regional farms.


In case you aren't able to visit a dairy farm this month,  here's a few dairy facts I'd like  to share with you   for National  Farm to School Month:

Milk travels from local farm families--to inspection,  processing and pasteurization, to you--in 48 hours or less.

There are 51,000 dairy farms in the United States and 98 percent of them are family owned.

It only takes 5 to 10 minutes to milk a cow on today's dairy farm.

Fresh milk straight from the cow is 101 degrees. Milk is quickly cooled and kept cold at 35-40 degrees F.

A single dairy cow yields about 6 to 7 gallons of milk per day.

Today's dairy farms produce almost three times more milk than farms of 19--and with about half the number of crops.

90 pounds of feed and hay are consumed by a dairy cow each day.

Dairy farming provides 130,000 jobs in the United States.

Water used to clean the milking equipment and barn is recycled to irrigate fields to grow crops.

Manure is recycled and is used by dairy farmers to fertilize their crops and for many of us to fertilize our gardens.

                                            I'll be celebrating with milk--how about you?

Moo Facts for National Farm to School Month

Did you know that October is National Farm to School Month?  The National Farm to School program works to improve child nutrition,sustain local farm economies, and educate children about where their food comes from. Dairy farmers have a great story to tell about milk that includes how we produce a nutritious product, while caring for our animals and the land we call home.

Here's a few interesting Moo Facts you can share with kids of all ages:

• There are 60,000 dairy farms in the U.S. with 11,000 dairy farms in the Midwest.
• It all starts with healthy cows: a dairy cow , on average, eats 90 pounds of hay,grain and silage each day, and drinks 25-50 gallons of water.
• Comfortable cows are healthy cows: cows lay down up to 14 hours each day.
• Before cows are milked, everything used in milking is cleaned and sanitized.
• Cows are milked 2-3 times a day.
• Each cow produces about 8-9 gallons of milk a day ,or more than 90 glasses. 
• Milk is produced in all 50 states; the top 10 producing states are: California,Wisconsin,New York, Pennsylvania,Minnesota,Texas,New Mexico,Michigan,and Washington.

You can learn more Moo Facts and about the story of milk in the educational packet From Farm to Food to You that is available at http://www.midwestdairy.com/. Sharing the story of milk is a great way to celebrate National Farm to School Month!