When we went to Adrian’s farm the first thing we saw were calves. One of the calves was premature, which means they were born before they were supposed to, which in cows can cause them to be smaller and sometimes have less or no fur, so this little calf had a blanket or a rug on. We were allowed to try and pet the calves and they even licked some people. Then we went to a different shed which had the cows. Adrian said that they’re oldest cow was eleven years old.
Next we went to the milking parlour, where Adrian showed us where he milked all the cows. They had a contraption where they had an aisle, then on either side of the aisle they had spaces for fourteen cows on each side fitting twenty eight cows. Adrian said that he milks the cows twice a day, once at seven o’clock then again at five o’clock. It was really cool how he had it all set up. He had it so he could pull a lever then the meal would fall into a trough where the cattle eat. At dairy farms they have this machine which has four suction-like things that you put the cows teat into and it sucks out the milk into a big tank.
On Adrian’s farm there were friesians. Adrian drives a John Deere or Massey-Ferguson. He didn’t grow up on a farm but his uncle had one that he went on. He said he started his farm twenty years ago. Adrian said he has one hundred cows on his farm and was expecting one hundred calves, but currently he only has 10. Adrian said he didn’t use moocow because it was too expensive. We also asked him if he would ever consider using technology and he said he wouldn’t because it’s too expensive.
By Saoirse Clarke
6th class