One of the activities we enjoyed during the reunion was visiting my cousin’s dairy farm. The photo is from the calf farm; the calves pictured are three to four months old. They were so cute and social, coming over to the fence for petting. As the calves grow older, they are moved from section to section until they go to the heifer barn. A real highlight was seeing the birth of a calf.

This is a very mechanized operation. The manure is treadmilled to openings that put the slurry in tanks. It is then processed for other uses. In the milking barn, the cows are hooked up to machines, one after another. I found this especially interesting since I remember my father teaching me to milk a cow when I was a kid.

For my father, this would be the stuff of fantasy. In the old days, and for him it wasn’t much different from the days of Will Rees, everything was by hand.

Even the feed is different. The cows still eat hay but their diets are carefully monitored for the proper protein, amino acids and such. Everything is regulated. (In the late 1800s, kids caught TB from milk or were sickened by milk adulterated with chalk or other substances.) My cousin’s farm won a prize a few years ago so they are very careful.

I eat very little beef and now plan to eat none; the calves seemed too much like pets.