The New Ulm FFA had 16 members attend the 97th National FFA Convention from October 22-26 in Indianapolis, Indiana. One of their favorite tours was the Fair Oaks Dairy Farm in Indiana.

On their way down to Indiana they had the opportunity to tour Fair Oaks Dairy and Swine Farm. The students were able to see all the different aspects of the dairy farm, such as the milking parlor, free stall barn, birthing center, and the Moo Cafe. Students were also able to tour the swine side of things, tracking all of the growth stages of the swine.

The attendees had a fun couple of hours at the farm as they were able to ride the personal Fair Oaks Dairy Buses to tour and visit the farm.

“The attendees were able to enjoy the Moo Cafe after an exciting drive around the farm,” Ms. Covington said. “The cafe has personalized Ice Cream from its own dairy farm, along with food that includes bigger dairy products such as hot ham and cheese sandwiches and grilled cheeses.”

“The members were able to enjoy their time being able to visit Fair Oaks Dairy Farm as an eye-opening experience for visitors, which included thousands of FFA members during the National FFA convention,” Covington said. “Being able to see a rotary milking parlor and robots milking thousands of cows is a pretty cool thing to be able to take your students to see. Both of those sets are unique, and our FFA members fully enjoyed the tour.”

The Students really enjoyed this tour as it was definitely a highlight the students talked about the rest of the trip. They were able to see such a big operation with their own set of eyes, when usually you will just hear about the big operations without being able to see it for yourself.