Field Trip

We planned on a shorter academic day today to allow for a field trip to a local goat dairy. While doing some laundry in the a.m., the RV park owner stopped by and asked if the boys would like a ride in his antique fire truck. He normally runs the fire truck each evening during the summer, but with so few campers in the park, the truck remained on display at the front entrance. He was preparing to park it for the winter with covering for the coming snows and was so thoughtful to think of our guys! They had a great time, then finished the rest of their work in time to visit the Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy in the afternoon. The owner of the dairy is Dawn Jump, thus the name!

First we saw the bucks that were segregated from the rest of the herd. They will be breeding in the next few weeks for a new batch of kids in the spring.

This is last springs crop of kids. They were very busy with a fresh bale of alfalfa.

Next to the business end of the dairy - the does were brought into the milking station where 13 at a time are fed alfalfa touched up with molasses while the milking machines go to work.

Each of the boys were allowed to participate!

The main produce of this dairy is cheese. The milk from the dairy's goats is certainly used, but they purchase most of the milk from a nearby goat farm. We were able to see the area where the cheese is made and packaged, then the next stop was the 'cave' where the cheese is aged.

Two large storage rooms are built 10' below ground for constant temperature that is ideal for the aging process. The dairy supplies cheese to local grocers and gourmet shops in nearby towns. They are waiting paperwork to clear the way for marketing their cheeses in Whole Foods Market in Denver and Boulder.

Growing busier and busier, they are looking for volunteers to help out with the handling of the new arrivals in March. Milking the does and feeding the kids becomes overwhelming for the dairy at that time and they've had great success with combining the work with education efforts with volunteers. If interested, they request contact near the end of January to schedule training.