Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Fair Oaks Adventure Part 3

The Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure movie is a lot of fun, but the attraction that gets more attention than any other is the birthing barn. As we walked from the VC to the BB, I noticed that there was not a single kid on the playground. (There is a playground under the snow--you can see the climbing wall on the left of the picture.)
I had never been in the birthing barn--it was still under construction the last time I had gone on the complete tour. It had amphitheater seating overlooking two pens. The cow on the left had delivered and she and her calf were sitting peacefully. The cow on the right was in obvious distress.
I wanted some little kid to say, "Look, mom. that cow has two heads," but none did. Most of the people who were still at the Dairy Adventure seemed to be watching.
Labor was quite short. The cow probably had followed her Lamaze coach and done the proper breathing. After the calf popped out, a man came and did something. I could not see what he was doing.
Even a glance at the TV screen above, which shows the whole thing from a different angle, did not help. Cow 56709 had a baby boy that weighed 88 pounds. No wonder she looked so uncomfortable. And human women think they have it rough when they have 8 pound babies.
The excitement over, we left, checking out the nursery. This little gal came into the world at 95 pounds!
I wonder what my granddaughter will think of this if she sees it this summer.

We still had one more fun activity before we left. We could catch the last tour bus for a trip to large dairy about half a mile north of the visitor's center.

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