June 11, 2013

Tour of Redmond Dairy Farm - Milking Facility (part 1/4)

Several weeks ago we bought tickets for our family to tour the dairy farm where they produce the raw milk that we buy each week. We thought the boys would appreciate a change of scenery and an educational experience.
So today we took a 1.5 hour drive down to Redmond, UT. I'm not gonna lie, this place wasn't easy to find... even with the little signs on the road. At one point we hit a moo-ving road block. But I only had to stop once for directions.

We managed to find the farm down a dirt road, about a 1/2 mile off the pavement.  Things were already started when we arrived but we were able to catch the farm tour with the first group.



We started the tour at the milking area.  The farm has over 100 cows that they milk twice daily.  The milk goes from the milking area threw a filter, through a cooler (which drops the temperature of the milk to 38 degrees) and into a holding tank.



While we were in the back room with the tank they talked about how their milk is always bottled and in the stores within 3 days of milking the cows.  If they have "extra" milk they use it to make cheese.  We got to sample some of the cheese and taste the milk.  We also got a brief explanation of difference between raw and pasteurized milk and some of the benefits and additional dairy products that you can make using raw milk.






Michelle was really excited about the extra options available from raw milk and asked several questions.  She also asked to see the cooler where the bottled milk, cheese and eggs are stored until they are shipped to the stores.



We also were able to see the egg cleaner.  It looked like a super-sized set of tooth brushes.  The eggs go through the tooth brush machine and come out clean on the other side.  It looked cool but I didn't get a chance to take a good picture.

That ended the first rotation, first part of the farm tour.

Comments