Blue Ridge Pre-K Visit Brant’s Dairy Farm

Submitted by Kendra Brant, Susquehanna County Dairy Maid

The Blue Ridge Pre-K students made their annual field trip to Brant’s Dairy Farm on the morning of March 24, 2016.  The kids came to learn how the farm works and what we do every day.

Dairy Promoters Kaelynn B. and Katrina V. visit
with Pre-K students.

I am Kendra Brant, a Susquehanna County Dairy Maid and 6^th grade Blue Ridge student. I was joined that morning at my family farm with Brooke Marvin, Alternate Susquehanna County Dairy Princess as well as Katrina Vidota, the Dairy Ambassador, and my sister Kaelynn Brant, also a Dairy Maid.  Evie Goff heads up the Susquehanna County Dairy Promotion program and helped get everything organized to go smoothly that morning. My parents Keith and Pam, and brother, Kyle, were also there helping at stations throughout the farm.

Blue Ridge Pre-K students and teachers at Brant's Dairy Farm.

I spoke to the students about the baby calves.  We discussed what the calves eat and drink.  We also talked about their ages and how old they have to be to move to a different pen.  Kaelynn and Katrina’s station focused on milking the cows and they showed students how to put the milkers on the cows and how the milk gets transported through the pipeline to the milk house.  Brooke talked with the kids about the milk storage, how it is put in the tank and then leaves the farm and heads to the milk plant.  Our employees Maria Diaz and Lisa Zurn also helped out at the stations. Maria spoke to the children about what the cows get to eat to help them make the most milk and Lisa helped me at the calf station. My brother and father showed students the farm tractors and helped them get up in them to pretend drive. The students were able to play on a large hay fort that my dad had built for the occasion.   

Christopher K. learns about
the milking a cow!

When we finished the stations, everyone had some snacks.  We enjoyed a dairy treat, Gogurt, and the kids were reminded to have 3 servings of dairy per day.   At the end, we had a huge Easter egg hunt in the yard.

My family and I plan on continuing to partner with Blue Ridge and give young children the opportunity to visit a working dairy farm.  It was a great day and there were many smiling kids who enjoyed it.