Learning through fun

CALEDONIA, Minn. — As the sun shone May 8, over 200 fifth graders descended on Blue View Dairy for a few hours of dairy education and fun.

“It’s extremely important for kids to actually get on the farm,” said fifth- and sixth-grade teacher Theresa Von Arx. “It gets rid of some of those misconceptions people have about farms and gives people a better appreciation of what goes into how they get their dairy products that they enjoy every day. (Farming) is not easy. People have to be very committed and love doing this to be a dairy farmer.”

Von Arx, who teaches at St. Peter’s Catholic School in Hokah, is a former dairy farmer and Houston County dairy princess. She has been a teacher for 18 years.

Her class was part of the 204 students attending the 5th Grade Dairy Day Camp. The event, which is in its second year, is put on by the Houston County dairy farmers and the Houston County American Dairy Association. It has been hosted both years by the Welscher family of Blue View Dairy near Caledonia.  Joe Welscher milks 300 cows alongside his two brothers, Jay and Jim, and his two sons, Kyle and Brian.

The event was hosted in two sessions, with about 100 students in the morning and 100 in the afternoon.

Hope Turner, whose husband works on a Caledonia-area dairy, helped plan the event.

“Whenever you can get youth to know more about agriculture, specifically dairy, it is fantastic,” she said. “Dairy gets a bad rap sometimes. We want kids to know that we care about our animals. We’re recyclers; we’re good to the environment. Dairy products are safe to consume and are good for us.”

Kids participated in seven activities: a presentation on dairy nutrition and the bovine rumen; a dairy-themed obstacle course; a tour of the dairy, feeding calves; experiencing the milking parlor; going on a hayride; and getting out of a dairy-themed escape trailer. Students also had a cheeseburger lunch in the farm shop.

“I hope that they can say they learned at least one thing,” Turner said.

“Even if that one thing is that we have dairy farms in Houston County, and it is a fun place to be. That would be fantastic.”

Turner was assisted by 15-20 volunteers, including all three members of Houston County’s dairy royalty, FFA students and the Welscher family. Joe led kids in their experience of the milk house and parlor. He said his favorite part of the day was watching the kids come and learn.

“I just love having them come here and see what it’s all about,” Welscher  said. “There are a lot of adults too who don’t know where their (dairy products) come from.”

He said he hoped students learned from his station about the parlor set up, how milk is cooled, what temperature milk comes out and what temperature it needs to be cooled to, among others.

“I’m sure some of these have never seen a cow milked,” Welscher  said.

Before the students arrived at 8:45 a.m., chores, scheduled breeding and a herd health check with the vet had been completed. Welscher said rain the week before the event gave them time to get their shop cleaned.

Previously, instead of the day camp, students were bussed to Iowa’s Dairy Center in Calmar, Iowa. However, the time and expense of bussing the kids caused the Houston County dairy community to make their own event.

“You don’t need to leave Houston County to find a farm,” Turner said. “We felt like we could do more stations and more hands-on stuff if we did it ourselves.”

Fellow board member Heidi Waldenberger agreed.

“(Students) need to know that we have this going on in our county, versus sending them to a learning center,” she said.

Waldenberger said Blue View Dairy works perfectly for the event because it is set up in a circle.

“They’re such great hosts, we couldn’t do it without them,” she said.

Turner agreed.

“The Welschers were very gracious to allow us to invade their farm,” she said.

One of the main activities for the students was a presentation on dairy nutrition and the rumen of cows called “Got Guts.”

“We asked our nutritionist (Mike Stemper) if he would be willing to (present), and he’s been phenomenal,” she said. “He’s just a big kid himself. Mike can just kill (it); he gets the kids so intrigued on nutrition.”

Amber Eide, who is a calf specialist, also helped operate the station.

Waldenberger planned the escape trailer. This activity had a cattle trailer filled with dairy information that provided clues for students to figure out the dairy-themed word that unlocked the padlock on the back gate. This year’s theme was cow health. She said the kids were even reading the poster on milk fever, which she did not expect.

“It’s fun for the kids to go through there and learn,” Waldenberger said. “I just hope that they learned that cows can get sick, but you can make them better.”

Von Arx said the escape trailer was one of her students’ favorite activities of the day.

Turner and Waldenberger hope to get the three schools in Houston County that are not participating in the event to come next year.

“I’m hoping now that we’ve reached some of the bigger schools this year, that they will spread the word about what they learned and how much fun they had,” Waldenberger said.