Shamrock Farms Tour

 

Back in December we took a holiday tour of Shamrock Farms right before Christmas. If you live in Phoenix, I highly recommend it. It is past Maricopa, so for us it took about and hour and 15 minutes to get there but if you live in the east valley it probably isn't nearly as bad. Kids or no kids, it was really cool. It is so fascinating to see how massive a production it is and how much milk they produce on a daily basis. This tour was a special Christmas tour so they had Santa there and some other fun games and Christmas crafts, but the actual 45 minute tour is always the same. You ride out on a little cart and make several trips along the tour. It can be cold when you are on the cart and it is moving so dress appropriately. Since it was a special Christmas tour they had some snow to play in outside when you arrived.

As much as I love to pretend this was all my idea, obviously it was my sister's idea. We tagged along on her trip and my mom came too. My sister had previously taken her students on this tour as a field trip so she knew how much fun it would be.



My nephews are the cutest, right?







 

The first stop was a little playground outside of the building where we later got to view the milking process.
 





I don't think that this picture conveys just how insanely huge and beastly these cows are. It is so crazy to see such a big animal so close (obviously I did not grow up on a farm).

 

We got back on the cart and rode around the farm and through where the cows eat. There are sooo many cows. They showed us where the "organic" cows are kept as well as all of the different stages the cows go through on the farm from being a baby to having a baby and to "retiring". We also got to stop and feed some baby cows. They were a little jumpy.





 

 

 

 

We ended up having to rush out of their at the end because I had to make it to my soccer game but it was really fun and I can't wait to go back again (also, you get chocolate milk when you finish the tour, so that's awesome)!