Dairy Days
July 15 is Cow Appreciation Day—celebrate with a dairy-themed tour. Kansas City kids can learn about dairy cows, farming, milk, cheese making, eggs and delicious dairy products at these local attractions.
Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead
(13800 Switzer, Overland Park, KS, 913.897.2360). Mon.-Thu., FREE admission; Fri.-Sun., $2/person, 1 & under free. The farmstead features many wonderful attractions to help children learn about and appreciate animals, nature and the outdoors, but one of the highlights is the dairy barn. The 5,000-square-foot dairy barn is home to calves of the major dairy breeds and Holstein and Jersey/Holstein cows. The dairy barn is also home to Rosie, the life-size milking cow model children can milk by hand. Other interactive exhibits help children learn more about dairy.
Shatto Milk Company
(9406 N. Hwy. 33, Osborn, MO, 816.930.3862, ShattoMilk.com). Explore a working dairy farm and milk bottling company offering tours to groups of any size. From start to finish, you’ll witness where milk comes from on a Shatto tour. Children delight in petting calves, milking cows and meeting the famously happy herd. Watch through a window as milk is processed and bottled, and end your tour sampling delightful flavors! Shatto opened a brand new cheese making facility last year, and visitors now can watch the cheese making process firsthand!
Homestead Creamery
(2059 LIV 506, Jamesport, MO, 660.684.6970). The Florys, a Brethren family, operate this Jamesport dairy and creamery. They raise Jersey cows and make natural-rinded farmstead cheese on site. When our family toured the creamery, the Flory girls gave my children a tour of the farm and helped teach them to bottle-feed Jersey calves. On Tuesdays they conduct cheese making tours with samples of the products offered daily. BONUS TIP: Jamesport is a great family day trip! Search for “Jamesport” on KCParent.com for more details.
BONUS–Sheep’s Milk Too! Green Dirt Farm
(In Weston, MO, 816.386.2156, GreenDirtFarm.com). The farm is open for tours. Green Dirt Farm is a working sheep farm on the bluffs of the Missouri River Valley, and they offer an educational tour unlike any other. Guests learn why grass is the best food for the 150 ewes on the farm, how important healthy soil is to the environment and what makes the cheese so good. Visitors also learn about pasture rotation while watching the dairy sheep graze on the hills. The highlights of the tour, though, are the final steps: watching as the sheep are milked and the cheese is made in the kitchen, and tasting samples!