Another beautiful day in southern Florida. Today, my cousin, her father-in-law, husband, son, and step-daughter took me on a tour of the dairy farm. Let me tell you...this is one BIG FARM! Our first stop was to see the baby alligators in the stream on their property. I didn't get to see the mama gator, but that's ok. It was enough to see the small ones. I only saw three and they were only a couple of feet long. They taste very good when fried, but I'll tell you more about that later. After seeing the baby gators, we continued on our tour up to the milking barn. They milk three times a day, seven days a week. They have about 3000 Holstein cows on their farm, but only milk 1500 a day. They move the cows from their feeding area to the milking area where they walk up the corridor and into their milking stall, where the workers attach the milking device. When they are done, the utters are "dipped" with an antibacterial solution to prevent disease and infection. After that a bar in the front of the stalls drops and the cows exit the milking station. The bar is then raised and the process starts again with the next group of cows. From there we went to the "nursery" where the youngest calf was about an hour old to the oldest which was about nine weeks old. Babies are always cute and I would love to have one, but they grow up and my motorhome is not large enough for a full size heifer. We then went past the corral where the pregnant cows are kept and there it was. I couldn't believe my eyes. A newborn calf, not even ten minutes old. The mama was licking her baby clean and then she started to stand. What a sight to experience. Seeing something like this is so much better than being trapped by a mouse in Orlando.
After our tour of the dairy farm, we were meeting my aunt for dinner at
"The Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar" on the Phillippi Creek in Sarasota. I told my aunt I wanted some good gator and seafood and she said that this was the place. It was without a doubt. I ordered the gator appetizer and combo platter for dinner. Even Len tried the gator and liked it. They sat us at a table overlooking the creek. It was a lovely ending to a beautiful day. To see more pictures taken today
click here. Thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas' Trails...till next time.
Another beautiful day in southern Florida. Today, my cousin, her father-in-law, husband, son, and step-daughter took me on a tour of the dairy farm. Let me tell you...this is one BIG FARM! Our first stop was to see the baby alligators in the stream on their property. I didn't get to see the mama gator, but that's ok. It was enough to see the small ones. I only saw three and they were only a couple of feet long. They taste very good when fried, but I'll tell you more about that later. After seeing the baby gators, we continued on our tour up to the milking barn. They milk three times a day, seven days a week. They have about 3000 Holstein cows on their farm, but only milk 1500 a day. They move the cows from their feeding area to the milking area where they walk up the corridor and into their milking stall, where the workers attach the milking device. When they are done, the utters are "dipped" with an antibacterial solution to prevent disease and infection. After that a bar in the front of the stalls drops and the cows exit the milking station. The bar is then raised and the process starts again with the next group of cows. From there we went to the "nursery" where the youngest calf was about an hour old to the oldest which was about nine weeks old. Babies are always cute and I would love to have one, but they grow up and my motorhome is not large enough for a full size heifer. We then went past the corral where the pregnant cows are kept and there it was. I couldn't believe my eyes. A newborn calf, not even ten minutes old. The mama was licking her baby clean and then she started to stand. What a sight to experience. Seeing something like this is so much better than being trapped by a mouse in Orlando.
After our tour of the dairy farm, we were meeting my aunt for dinner at "The Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar" on the Phillippi Creek in Sarasota. I told my aunt I wanted some good gator and seafood and she said that this was the place. It was without a doubt. I ordered the gator appetizer and combo platter for dinner. Even Len tried the gator and liked it. They sat us at a table overlooking the creek. It was a lovely ending to a beautiful day. To see more pictures taken today click here. Thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas' Trails...till next time.
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