Mobile dairy unit has ‘Snazzy’ milking for attention

Wednesday was Snazzy’s first day at Douglass Learning Center, and she couldn’t have felt more at home, even though all the students were staring at her.

The 4-year-old Jersey dairy cow is accustomed to being the center of attention when she visits schools in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Snazzy is the focal point of the Mobile Dairy Classroom, a program designed to teach students about the importance of dairy and dairy farmers. She and her driver, Suzie Reece, paid a visit to Douglass for students enrolled in Lawton Virtual Academy and Gateway.

While Snazzy poked her head through the trailer and eyed the students and their families gathered in front of her, Reece shared some facts about dairy products and dairy farms.

•Milk contains 13 nutrients;

•As long as it is milk from a cow, it will have those nutrients;

•Dairy products include milk, cheese sticks, yogurt, and cheese on your pizza;

•Dairy cows are naturally thinner than beef cows;

•The most popular dairy cows are black and white Holsteins because they give the most milk (10-12 gallons a day);

•Dairy cows must be milked twice a day, 12 hours apart;

•Jerseys are the second most popular dairy cow and produce 6-8 gallons of milk a day;

•Jerseys give richer cream, which is used in cream cheese and whipped cream products;

•Cows don’t sweat; their body temperature is 101.5 degrees F.;

∙Cows don’t have any top teeth;

•Cows eat 40-100 pounds a day and drink the equivalent of a bathtub of water; and

•There are fewer than 100 dairy farms in Oklahoma.

Students also learned how cows spend most of their day — resting and ruminating. Ruminating also is known as chewing their cud, according to Reece, who explained that cows have four compartments in their stomachs. They swallow their food whole and then spend most of the day bringing it back up, chewing it 50 times and swallowing it again.

The cows are in a very relaxed state while they ruminate, Reece said, adding that she often envies them while they are chewing their cuds because they look so content.

As part of the demonstration, Reece gently cleaned Snazzy’s udder and attached electric milkers so students could see milk flowing into a large bottle mounted on the side of the trailer.

Serenity Smith, 10, who attends Lawton Virtual Academy, was spellbound while taking all of this in.

“It was awesome,” she said of the program. She said she came because, “I really wanted to see cows because they are cool.”

She said the best part was learning about how much milk cows can give.

“I want to work with cows,” she said. “I want to feed them.” She wasn’t daunted by the prospect of milking them twice a day.

“That would be fine with me,” she said with a big smile.

Kathleen Long, math and ag teacher at Douglass who invited the Mobile Dairy, said the purpose of the program was to introduce principles of agriculture to the students.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get the kids to the farm, but you can bring the farm to the kids,” she said.