Bringing the farm to the classroom through technology in the Adopt a Cow program

How tall will be she be? Does she exercise? Where does she live? These are just a few of the questions 4^th and 5^th grade students asked their teacher when she introduced them to Pearl, a dairy calf from a local dairy farm. How students learned the answers to those questions along with more details about life on a dairy farm, without ever leaving the classroom, was the topic of conversation in the latest episode of Dairy on the Air.

In this episode, Brita Gibart, a teacher from Farmington, Minnesota, and Lorilee Schultz, a dairy farmer from Orangeville, Illinois, joined host Andy Vance in a discussion exploring the impact of the Adopt a Cow program on students, teachers and dairy farmers. The discussion touched on how the Adopt a Cow program, a partnership between Discover Dairy and Midwest Dairy, brings real-life details about dairy farming directly into the classrooms of students across the Midwest Dairy region and provides an opportunity for dairy farmers to share about how they care for their animals, the environment and their communities.

Adopt A Cow is just one example of how students and farmers are having meaningful connections using technology, and because it’s easily accessible, these conversations can have an exponentially larger reach than a traditional on farm visit. Through Midwest Dairy’s partnership with Adopt a Cow this school year, more than 10,000 educators have signed up, and more than 260,000 students have participated in the program. This is a 1,400 percent increase from the previous school year.

Tune in to the latest episode of Dairy on the Air to learn more about the Adopt a Cow program from the perspective of both an educator and dairy farmer. This Dairy on the Air episode, and others, can be download on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or your favorite podcast platform. You can also listen to this, and all Dairy on the Air episodes, directly on MidwestDairy.com. ​​​​​​​