By MELISSA HART
Michigan Correspondent

NASHVILLE, Mich. — Promotion of agriculture, and specifically the dairy industry, was in focus at the Udderly Cool Day at Mooville recently at Mooville Creamery in Nashville.

Nearly 200 students, parents and teachers from Lansing and Battle Creek area schools made the trek to Nashville for a free day of fun on the farm. Education was the name of game with several stations set up for second, third and fourth graders to navigate through as they learned how milk goes from the cow to their breakfast table.
Former and current Michigan Dairy Ambassadors were heavily involved in the event. Ashley Messing of Bad Axe, Mich. had developed the idea during her reign as the 2007 Senior Michigan Dairy Ambassador.

“I wanted the non-ag community to know where their food comes from and why we do what we do on the farm.” she explained. “I wanted to show them the different management practices so they could see first hand what we do and why we do it.”

Krista Beeker, Constantine, Mich., the 2007 Junior Michigan Dairy Ambassador along with the current ambassadors, Lynnae Slavik, Ashley, and Brittany Westendorp, all of Nashville, worked to develop the education stations.

The students began learning about the different dairy breeds, dairy products and made butter in a jar.

MSU Extension Specialist Phil Taylor taught the kids what cows and calves eat, how much they eat and related it to the children’s diet.
Louisa Westendorp, co-owner of Mooville Creamery took the kids on a tour of the milking parlor where the cows are milked every day. The kids were able to get involved by milking a cow themselves. Slavik taught each youngster how to milk a cow by hand.

“The kids were very excited about being able to milk the Jersey cow by themselves, you could see the anticipation on their faces, they couldn’t wait for a turn to get their hands on those teats,” Ashley Messing said.

A tour of the bottling plant was next where they learned how the milk is processed and put into bottles and also how the ice cream is made.

One of the more popular stations was the petting farm. Brittany Westendorp guided the children through the farm where they were able to pet and interact with various animals on a farm.

The day was topped off by lunch at the creamery with fresh-made ice cream.

“It was a very successful day and we were pleased with the turnout.” Messing said. “All the funding for the event was generated through donations from the Ag industry so that we could provide a free field day for the schools. So many schools are on a tight budget so we were glad to do this for them. In fact, one school told us this was their only field trip for the year.”

Many volunteers enabled this event to happen.

“Sara Long of Michigan State University and 15 high school and MSU college students put time in to make the day a success and we’d like to make it an annual event,” Messing added.
“It’s on the calendar for the same time and place next year, and we’re hoping to get even more kids involved and maybe even expand it to two days.”