Today we all met at Westy's place and Roger and Chi Chi took us to Vern Wickstrom's Dairy Farm just outside of Hilmar. We were given a tour of the milking process and a brief run down of the history of the Farm. The farm was brought in 1940 and Vern is the fourth generation.
Why a dairy cow exists. Milk galore!
Vern showed us the area that the cattle are kept in and the two different varieties of cattle that the use at the Farm. The cattle make their own way through to the "merry-go-round" and get hooked up to be milked. At the end of the process they back themselves away from the milking bay and off they go! Well trained cows! The milk is pumped through to the two 7000 gallon tanks and these tanks are emptied by the trucks 2-3 times a day. That's a whole lotta milk!
The (2 or 3x) daily grind on the milking machine
Our next stop was the Hilmar Cheese Company which was founded in 1985 and is a cooperative of 12 dairy farmers seeking to maximise the value of their Jersey Cow's high solids milk. In a day, the company processes 5.5 million litres of milk which produces 1.3 million pounds of cheese! Good thing too, because the cheese here is delicious. They mainly make American Jack and Cheddar. Jack is a funny yellow colour, kinda dark and tastes....like cheese.
Errol meeting a very distant cousin
After a delicious lunch, we headed to the Livingston to see Foster Farms Chicken, which was founded in 1939. We split into two groups and had a tour of the Operations of the business. We started at the live chickens being delivered in crates and travelling along a conveyor belt into the dark room where apparently they are much more relaxed (plus they get their belly rubbed by a machine). They are hung upside down on some hooks by their feet and travel into the "killing room". I debated if I wanted to see this part - if I go in, will I ever eat chicken again?
* This may be a little graphic but needed to explain the process*
The chickens head runs through water and an electric current passes through electrocuting them, knocking them unconscious. They travel past a machine that cuts their carotid artery and just in case the machine doesn't do the job properly, there are workers on hand to slit their throat. We then followed the process - feathers being oiled off, feet chopped off and sent to China, innards being pulled out by machine, inspection of chickens, innards put back in (for some orders) and eventually the chicken pieces being cut and packaged.
It takes 15mins for a chicken to go through the kill and clean process then it is cooled in water for 70mins before being sliced which takes another 10mins. Each minute 640 chickens are killed and processed - YES 640 a MINUTE!! I found it really interesting and couldn't believe how many people were working on the floor. There are 2100 people employed on the floor and I can see why when there are that many chickens going through.
We headed back to our family, one member not feeling the best and as far as I know hasn't eaten chicken since! (5 days later...still no chicken consumed)
Is Glen tastier than corn husks??
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