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03/21/12

Discovering the Dairy at SwissLane Farms in Michigan

When I found out that I would get to go to Michigan for the Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference, I was immediately jazzed as I knew friends Annie & Jerry Link lived outside of Grand Rapids. They had invited me to visit her family’s dairy farm. Here’s an overview of what I saw. I will share more later about the milking barn, the new high tech center and maple syrup! You can read ahead at the Dairy Discovery blog for SwissLane Farms or on Dairy Discovery’s website!

The Farm

SwissLane Farms in MI home to the Oesch family

SwissLane Farms in MI home to the Oesch family

Some of the cows having a snack

Some of the cows having a snack

Maternity

Annie monitoring a cow ready to deliver

Annie monitoring a cow ready to deliver

The cow nearing delivery is in a special maternity pen

The cow nearing delivery is in a special maternity pen

Nursery

a calf that needed time in the nursery

a calf that needed time in the nursery

Annie & Jenna show me a nursery barn

Annie & Jenna show me a nursery barn

I love the look of white calves

I love the look of white calves

checking the medical records

checking the medical records

Dairy Discovery

(This is the center the family built to host school tours, etc.)

the Dairy Discovery center at SwissLane Farms

the Dairy Discovery center at SwissLane Farms

That's me Janice Person in Dairy Discovery

That's me Janice Person in Dairy Discovery

a calf that needed time in the nursery
a calf that needed time in the nursery
I love the look of white calves
I love the look of white calves
SwissLane Farms in MI home to the Oesch family
SwissLane Farms in MI home to the Oesch family

Annie's grandpa Oesch
Annie’s grandpa Oesch
checking the medical records
checking the medical records
the Dairy Discovery center at SwissLane Farms
the Dairy Discovery center at SwissLane Farms

That's me Janice Person in Dairy Discovery
That’s me Janice Person in Dairy Discovery
Annie monitoring a cow ready to deliver
Annie monitoring a cow ready to deliver
The cow nearing delivery is in a special maternity pen
The cow nearing delivery is in a special maternity pen

Some of the cows having a snack
Some of the cows having a snack
Annie & Jenna show me a nursery barn
Annie & Jenna show me a nursery barn
one of the young calves in the nursery
one of the young calves in the nursery

 

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ag awareness// agriculture// Food & Farm

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Comments

  1. Susi says

    March 21, 2012 at 9:40 am

    Love the pictures. We go to the maternity ward at the local county fair every year. And even though we haven’t seen a calf being born we’ve seen some right after delivery with the cords still attached and nursing. Amazing. 🙂

  2. Robyn says

    March 21, 2012 at 10:43 am

    I find big dairy operations fascinating.

    I took and advanced placement class in college. Our semester project and the basis for the class was to build a virtual 1,000 head dairy. There were 6-7 of us in the class and we toured many dairies in the area, did extensive research and did a presentation to the community. Many that attended our presentation were dairy farmers that had moved here from Holland.

    Thanks for sharing your tour, JP

  3. Stacey at RealWorldMom (Linky) says

    March 21, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    The white calf is adorable! Great shots! Happy WW!

  4. jessica @peekababy says

    March 22, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    Those cows are ridiculously adorable…especially the one with her tongue hanging out! check out my ww http://peekababyny.com/newyork/post-1100/

  5. norman jahnke says

    December 12, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    Well hello neiighbor, well it seems that way anyhow. This is norm jahnke now out here in washington living with my youngest daughter. Sis and i grew up with our grandparents, ward and mary boulard. We lived on alden nash, just north of the round barn, the boulard barn, just 1 mi south of you. They had a general farm, mostly what they called a dairy however it had realy gone down hill afte ezzra death after college, he was supposed to be the heardsman. My granddad was the carpenter and syvester was the mechaniic.i knew most farmers around there. Went to grade school and church just down the road from you with dale johnson, steve carlson, lorain and june carlson , mary ellen and virginia bryant. At one time we had as many as 14 kids in 1st thru 8th grade and mrs headworth was the only teacher i was involved in agriculture, deeply. Worked on feilds just acrost the road from you employed by frits wengier that lived just south of us. Then i graduated high school at caledonia and went directly in to the air froce in 51. I often sit down here and check on farm and aircraft information now days, can’t do much more, at least untin vintage base ball time my e mail is [email protected]. give me a hit if you like?

Trackbacks

  1. VIDEO: How To Make Maple Syrup & Other Breakfast Ideas | A Colorful Adventure says:
    March 24, 2012 at 9:04 am

    […] Most of us laugh a bit when Will Ferrell’s character in “Elf” proclaims maple syrup as one of the four food groups. But then again, most people think syrup is a required part of breakfast involving pancakes, waffles or French toast. And even though I knew the difference between some of the syrup used and maple syrup, and even though I knew maple syrup came from trees, I loved seeing how maple syrup is made during a brief trip to SwissLane Farms, near Grand Rapids, Michigan in February. Here are some of my photos from my second dairy farm visit! […]

  2. What You May Have Missed in the Past Week | a colorful adventure says:
    March 25, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    […] Most of us laugh a bit when Will Ferrell’s character in “Elf” proclaims maple syrup as one of the four food groups. But then again, most people think syrup is a required part of breakfast involving pancakes, waffles or French toast. And even though I knew the difference between some of the syrup used and maple syrup, and even though I knew maple syrup came from trees, I loved seeing how maple syrup is made during a brief trip to SwissLane Farms, near Grand Rapids, Michigan in February. Here are some of my photos from my second dairy farm visit! […]

  3. Poll on your favorite cheese & Stoires of My Cheese-Related Travel says:
    November 10, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    […] You may remember Annie best from the post about how to make maple syrup because I had a  chance to visit her dairy farm. […]

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