By Shelby Shank
Field Editor

Students across the Lone Star State get a firsthand look at agriculture through Texas Farm Bureau’s (TFB) Farm From School program.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade virtually “meet” with a farmer or rancher once a month using a video conferencing app.

The spring semester kicked off with a tour of a dairy farm. Students learned from Ellie Cnossen, a third generation farmer who raises dairy cattle with her husband and two children in Hereford.

“Students across the Lone Star State tuned into the February Farm From School visit to learn all about dairy cattle at Cnossen Dairy,” said Carson Read, TFB educational outreach coordinator. “Students across the state asked many questions and were intrigued to learn more about dairy cows.”

Cnossen gave students a tour around the dairy farm, showing them the milking parlor and where they keep the freshly born calves.

During the 30-minute virtual session, Cnossen discussed dairy nutrition, the milking process and the role electronic identification (EID) tags have on their farm.

They milk about 10,000 Jersey and Holstein cows each day.

Students were able to tour the rotary parlor where the cows get milked twice a day, every day. The rotary can hold 106 cows at a time. Students were able to see the milking process from start to finish.

“The cows love to be milked. They know time of day they will be milked and run up to the gate in their pens and will let the milkers know that they are ready,” Cnossen told the students. “They’ll load up and wait in line to be loaded in the rotary.”

Cnossen told students Jersey cows can milk at least eight gallon jugs of milk a day, and Holsteins can milk up to 13 or 15 gallon jugs a day.

The dairy cattle on Cnossen Dairy have EID tags that help track the cows. These tags can detect which pen the cow needs to go to after milking and can tell how much milk percentage that cow is producing.

Once the cows are done milking, they will step off the rotary and walk back to their pens.

“They’ll go back out to their pens where they’ll enjoy their all-day buffet and a nice clean water trough,” Cnossen said. “Their pens are scraped every day and bedded for them to lay on when they’re done milking.”

The milk goes through a filtration system and a cooling system. Before the milk leaves the farm, it is tested for antibiotics and then tested again when it reaches its final destination. Cnossen confirmed that milk doesn’t contain antibiotics.

The students wanted to know Cnossen’s favorite part of being a dairy farmer.

“I love getting to farm with my family,” Cnossen said. “Every day when I come to the farm, I get to work with my husband and my children, and I love that.”

More information on Farm From School
The remaining topics for the spring semester include forestry, bees and other pollinators and how agriculture plays a role in making baseball gloves.

For more information on the program, visit texasfarmbureau.org/aitc.