Trees, Cows, Peanuts, and More! - Olivia

We first started our third day with the forestry museum in Perry, FL.

After we walked through the main office building, we went across into the next room which talked about turpentine and process to get it from pine trees. It showcased axes, and what tree stumps looked like after they had carved the grooves in them to let the sap flow from the tree. The next glass box showed different types of bugs and maggots in the forest and their life cycle. Next we saw a replica of many animals in the forest setting. Outside, across the field was a house from the 1800’s showing more what it was like to live in north Florida.

Later in the day after lunch we drove to the Full Circle Dairy Farm where the Greg and Cindy Watts, the owners, showed us how we all get our milk.

The first thing we saw was the rotary parlor where the cows enter a small section of metal bars and a worker sanitizes the utters with Iodine solution. The machine moves the cows down to the next worker where she then wiped off the cows' cleaned teats and they connected the milking machine to the cow. After they get milked, the machine automatically pops off and the cows are wiped down with a antibacterial solution to prevent any sickness or infection to their utters. They then return to there stalls.

Next we drove through the feed barn to the baby cow unit where every baby cow born at the farm goes.  Feeders with milk made from powder are given to the calves whenever they like, with small breaks in between. As we moved through the barn, the pens of calves get older and get moved down in groups by age, until they are old enough to be one of the cows producing milk one day.

After some final words at the dairy, we got in a truck and drove down the dirt road to the peanut fields that belonged to a neighboring farmer. We got to see the harvesting trucks picking up the peanuts across the 200+ acre land and shooting out the waste and left over plant behind them.

We ended the day at Saint Marks Lighthouse where we took a selfie with the tower then walked the nature trail and saw pretty yellow flowers that had tons of different types of butterflies around them.