“We’re trying to play the odds game,” Perkins said. “We brought 20, and as these calve, we will leave some of the calves here for the kids to play with and take the mom's home, start milking them and bring more pregnant moms down.”
Other fair activities happen on schedule, say at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Perkins said there’s no timetable for giving birth, so he waits for telltale signs to cue a fairgrounds-wide announcement.
“As soon as we see a water bag come out, we know that she will calve within an hour,” Perkins said. “Once that happens, we'll call the announcer at the fair here, they will put it over the P.A. system, and the crowd shows up.”
Perkins said the exhibit allows non-farm folks to better understand where their food comes from. He had an explanation for those who get upset that they take the newborn calves away from their moms right away.
“We explain to them that these cows are bred to give enough milk for 5, 6, 7 or 8 calves,” Perkins said. “If we only left the one calf with her, the mom would get sick and the calf would get sick from having too much milk. We want the calves to think of us as mom.”
Perkins is a third generation farmer; his family dairy goes back to 1942. He said to survive in today’s corporate dominated agriculture economy the small dairy farm needs a niche, like producing organic milk.
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