R Is For Reading

I love to read and I also have many, many great memories of spending time at our local library with Sara and Michael when they were younger, so when the library invites me to do a cow story time each June for Dairy Month, my reply is always, "What day and time? I'll be there!"

Whenever I give a presentation, the kids always ask what kind of animals we have on our farm. So I began by reading, The Flea's Sneeze.

The farm in this book has many kinds of animals. I shared that our farm has only cows and cats. And since the Flea in this book shares his cold with the other animals, I then talked about what we do to keep our animals healthy, including visits from the veterinarian, and using medicine when, and only when, necessary.

Have you read the book Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type? My next book, Giggle, Giggle, Quack is written by the same author.

Farmer Brown goes on vacation, and the animals have a little fun with their caretaker. The cows even order pizza for dinner! This segues into sharing what our cows eat...and it's not pizza. I also explain how we grow all the food our cows eat. 

Lastly, I read, Cow's Can't Fly. Our cow's can't fly, but they can do something else pretty amazing...

Our cows give lots of delicious milk! I then talked about the milking process that my family does two times a day, every day, including holidays. The kiddos then got to share all the foods they could think of that begin with milk! 

Before handing out the dairy goodie bags, and cow backpacks (thanks to the Dakota County Library for the backpacks), I asked the kids and their parents and grandparents that brought them, to pledge to have three servings of dairy each day. Have you pledged yet? If yes- we dairy farmers say thanks! If not, here's your chance. Go to Midwest Dairy #Dairy3forMe.