14 CapitalPress.com
June 3, 2016
Cuteness reigns during tour of dairy farm
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
Nate Kazemier, 21, son of the owners of Rickreall Dairy, snuggles
with a Holstein cow in the maternity barn.
Gail Oberst/For the Capital Press
Joy Foster, 10, lets a calf suck on her finger during a tour with other children at her grandparents’
Rickreall Dairy.
“I grew up doing what you
are about to do,” Foster told
the group. The oldest of four
Thank you
dairy producers for the
wholesome products
you provide consumers
every day.
Kazemier siblings, Foster and
her parents moved 25 years
ago to Rickreall, Ore., with
her grandfather’s herd from
Chino, Calif.
When she was old enough,
Foster worked in the dairy of-
fice, but quit the full-time gig
when her three children were
born. For the past seven years,
she’s been the spring dairy
tour leader, thanks to support
from the Oregon Dairy and
Nutrition Council, formerly
known as the Oregon Dairy
Products Commission, which
pays for her time. The com-
mission this year expanded
support to allow her to host
nearly double the visitors in
the spring and in the fall. Last
spring, the dairy hosted about
1,500 guests.
The tours begin with a
warning for city kids: “Every
building will have a differ-
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milk them and measure their
production. A milker gives
a low whistle and the cows
move out, making room for
the next group. Milking con-
tinues all day long, during
which each cow is milked
three times.
The tour is not all seri-
ous. Nate Kazemier, Foster’s
21-year-old brother, grabs a
swollen cow teet and sprays
his sister with milk. On the
way to the maternity barns,
Audri Evans, 5, of Salem,
shyly says she has a joke:
“Where do cows go for va-
cation? Moo York!” she says.
In the maternity barn, Nate
delights the children by jump-
ing the fence and cuddling
with one of the cows lying in
the straw.
“He thinks he’s a cow,” his
sister notes.
Teachers and administra-
tors who want to take a class-
room tour can email Foster at
dairytours@hotmail.com.
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ent smell. You’ll get used to
it,” Foster said. Further ori-
entation included production
notes: Each of the 1,700 milk-
ing cows average about 10
gallons of milk per day. Most
of Rickreall Dairy’s milk goes
into Fred Meyer’s gallon jugs
via the Farmers Cooperative
Creamery.
The tour begins in the calf
barn — calves weigh just 85
pounds at birth. As adults,
they weigh around 1,300
pounds, eating nearly 150
pounds of feed per day, Fos-
ter explains. The tags in their
ears have computer chips that
allow staff to track everything
from health to production.
The children reach into the
pens quietly, and giggle as the
calves attempt to suck their
fingers.
In the milking parlor,
children gathered at the far
end of a double row of Hol-
steins backed up to machin-
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It would be hard to decide
which was cuter: the calves or
the children.
Luckily, there was no need
to choose sides during a re-
cent school tour of Rickreall
Dairy, the first of the year for
tour leader Stacy Foster. Cute-
ness reigned among the young
of both species.
Rickreall Dairy — with
nearly 3,500 head one of the
largest farms in Oregon —
conducts tours for school chil-
dren each May and fall. An in-
crease in funding for the tours
has expanded the tours to Sep-
tember through October.
The two dozen children
who toured the plant this day
ranged in age from toddlers
to teens, all from Salem-ar-
ea home schools. With them
were a dozen adults.