Students in the Introduction to Animal Science class (AGRI 1419) recently had the chance to meet Marshmellow, a dairy cow, during a Southwest Dairy Museum Mobile classroom presentation at the Wylie Campus.
The Southwest Dairy Museum is sponsored by the Southwest Dairy Farmers, an alliance of dairy farmers from Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina who have pooled their resources to provide consumer education in nutrition and dairy product information and promote dairy product use, according to their website, www.southwestdairyfarmers.com.
Aaron Sanders, mobile dairy classroom instructor for the Southwest Dairy Museum, gave a 45-minute presentation on the dairy industry with a live milking demonstration featuring Marshmellow. Her performance was so endearing that one student exclaimed, “I want a cow.”
Collin College student Bailey Brown, who is planning to pursue an agricultural science degree from Texas A&M Commerce, said she truly enjoyed the demonstration.
“I thought it was really cool and informative. It was great for me to see it in person and not just on a PowerPoint,” Brown said.
Her classmate Maddi Wied, who is planning to become a veterinary technician, agreed.
“It was cool that they came out here because agriculture is the backbone of our nation,” Wied said.
According to Professor Amira Albalancy, who teaches the class, one student remarked that she did not think that people understand the importance of agriculture.
“I think she is right,” Albalancy said. “This demonstration is important because students in animal science courses need to have hands-on experience, and we could not do that this semester because of the pandemic. They have learned the science behind milking cows, and this experience provided them with the opportunity to see it.”
Students in this class decided they wanted to promote farms in Collin County, so they created the Twitter account @farmtotable2020 which lists farms that sell agricultural products to individuals.
Sanders covered a gamut of topics in his presentation ranging from washing and sterilizing cow udders before milking to vitamin D and the immune system. He also fielded a variety of questions. Read on to see if you can guess the correct answers?
Q. What happens if you don’t milk the cow?
A. If you don’t milk the cow, she actually quits making milk. We milk cows up to two times a day to keep up maximum production. Some farms milk three times a day.
Q. Does it bother Marshmellow when she is milked?
A. No.
Q. What do cows eat?
A. Cows eat grass, hay, and grain and drink water. It needs to be about 60 degrees at night for good grass to grow, and that is why farmers bale hay for cows to eat in the wintertime
Q. How many gallons of milk did Marshmellow make on a daily basis in her prime?
A. She made more than six gallons of milk every day in her prime. Now, she typically makes about two gallons in the morning and another two gallons at night. At the demonstration today Marshmellow produced 22 pounds or a little more than two and a half gallons in the glass weigh jar. We used to use weigh jars when we milked the cows, but now it goes straight to the cooler.
Q. How many stomachs does a cow have?
A. Cows have four stomachs. They are ruminants that chew their cud or burp up food and chew it again.
Q. What temperature is milk when it comes out of a cow’s udder?
A. Milk comes from the cow very warm. Her temperature is 101.5 degrees.
Q. What are cows called before they bear calves?
A. Heifers
Q. How long do dairy cows usually live?
A. They live for 8-10 years. Marshmellow turned 5 years old in October.
Q. Does a cow have to have a calf to make milk?
A. Yes.
Q. How many essential vitamins does milk provide?
A. Milk provides nine essential vitamins. Go to the grocery story and see how many things you can find with nine essential nutrients. Many products add nutrients. Milk also provides calcium for bones and teeth, and milk is good for brain cells and muscles.
Q. What is the yearly milking cycle?
A. Marshmellow had a calf eight months ago. We will milk her for 10 months. At 10 months she is not making milk. Two months later she should have her next calf. Ten months of milking plus the two months equals a yearly cycle. Marshmellow is eight months into her lactation or milking period.
Q. Do cows sweat?
A. No.
Q. Is vitamin D added to the milk or is it natural?
A. It is natural.
Q. Milk is pasteurized at 165 degrees. Does it kill the good bacteria?
A. No, it doesn’t. We can even ultra-pasteurize it to make it shelf stable milk that you don’t need to refrigerate.
Q. What about homogenization?
A. Milk has solid particles of different sizes. Homogenizing makes them the same size and butter fat soluble.
Q. What is lactose-free milk?
A. They dissolve the lactose in that milk.
Did you know that Collin College has a new Urban Sustainable Agriculture program? To find out more, visit www.collin.edu/department/agriculture.