Many third-graders in Freeborn County got their first real-life opportunity to see elk, hog and dairy farms this week during the 17th annual Third Grade Farm Tours.

Though some of the students had seen the animals on farms before, a majority of them had not, so the experience proved to be one of excitement.

Students from Albert Lea, Alden-Conger, Glenville-Emmons, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva and United South Central schools participated in the visits, which were sponsored by the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce Agricultural Committee, corporate sponsors and friends.

Out at the dairy farm on 170th Street in Albert Lea on Thursday, a busload of children from USC were eager to learn.

Divided into two groups, the USC third-graders got to learn about things such as how much a cow eats, how a grown cow is milked and what an actual calf and cow look like.

Crowded around two baby calves, one group of children listened to dairy farmer Bruce Ness as he explained that the calves get fed with a nursing bottle for their first three feedings, after which they get fed with a pail.

After the first few days, farmers put some grain with molasses into it to encourage the calves to start eating other foods.

One student asked why one of the calves was wobbly, and Ness explained the calf was still learning how to walk.

“If you have a baby brother or sister, how long does it take them to walk?” he said.

The calves made noises and the children giggled.

Over with the adult cows, Randy Stephenson told the students there were 80 cows on that farm. Each cow gets milked 10 gallons a day.

The cows lay on sand, which keeps them cleaner and healthier, and the average cow weighs 1,500 pounds, he said. Each cow has a yellow tag in its ear that identifies it.

A student asked how old the cows in the barn were, and Stephenson said the average cow in the herd was 3 years old.

The large cows also made some noises and “ewws” could be heard from the students as one cow relieved itself.

Moving over to the milking parlor next to the barn, Stephenson explained how the cows come into the building to get milked.

He said farmers are meticulous about keeping their milking equipment clean, and they use a lot of high-tech equipment to do their jobs.

At the end of the visit, each child was given some string cheese and a cow eraser.

“I liked seeing the baby cows because they were cute,” student Madalyn Hart said.

Hart said she had seen cows before because her uncle has one, but she didn’t know before the visit that cows could be milked.

Student Brady Berg said his favorite part about the visit was also when he saw the baby calves. He liked being able to touch them. He said he had never seen a calf before.

Berg said he also liked seeing where the farmers milk the cows.

Ness said he hoped the children learned more about how the cows are taken care of and the cleanliness that farmers use in milking them. He also hoped they learned about how much cows eat and what the dairy products are that people eat.

He said that farm dates back to his great-great-grandfather.

Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce Operations Manager Tami Riecke said each year the third-graders go to different farms around the county. Next year, they will go back to a potato farm during one of their stops.

Riecke said the farm tours are some of her favorite events to plan because when she first started doing them she had never been on a farm before.

She said she thinks it’s important for children to visit farms to learn what really goes on there.

During the tours, the children learn about where their food comes from and what steps have to be taken to get it ready to eat. Before the tours, many children don’t understand all the steps that have to be taken to get their food from the farm to the table.

In addition to the Ness farm, students visited the hog farm of Tony and Johnna Kermes in Hayward and the Double D Elk Farm of Dave and Dawn Claussen in Glenville.