Members of NC State’s Animal Science Club are milking their State Fair booth for all its worth—and they’re encouraging fairgoers to do the same. The club allows fairgoers to milk cows at its milking booth while also teaching them about dairy farming and milk production.
Fairgoers pay $3 to milk a cow and leave with a small carton of Howling Cow milk. Cartons of Howling Cow milk and T-shirts are also for sale. All the money raised goes to the Animal Science Club.
The milking booth is the Animal Science Club’s main contribution to the fair, according to Katie Worth, a senior studying animal science and senior activities chair of the club.
The club aims to clear up misconceptions surrounding the treatment of farm animals by informing the public of positive nutrition practices and ways that milking is beneficial to both cows and humans. Worth explained that in order for farmers to be financially successful, their cattle must be healthy, therefore it does not benefit farmers to mistreat their animals.
“They’re not these factory farming Chipotle farms that people may think; they are family-owned,” Worth said.
More than 98 percent of North Carolina farms are family-owned, according to the North Carolina Animal Agriculture Coalition.
“But, they are for an economic profit, I’m not going to sugar coat that,” Worth said. “We have to pay for a lot of things to get here, so we’d mostly like to break even and then make a little profit because every dollar we make, we put back to our club.”
Worth said she used what she learned in her classes to teach fairgoers the importance of animal nutrition and how that provides them with the milk they drink.
“We’ve had a long tradition of teaching the public how to milk cows, and we try to teach them about the industry,” Worth said. “We have these animals to make meat and make milk. The cows have to get pregnant; they have to lactate, and if they can’t do that anymore, then they are not beneficial for the farms to keep.”
Sometimes people think it hurts the cows when they are milked, but Worth said cows like it and feel relieved.
In addition to the booth, there are other ways the club is participating in fair livestock festivities. Both dairy and beef cows are shown in the open livestock shows.
All the cows used by the Animal Science Club are NC State cattle from the Dairy Educational Unit on Lake Wheeler Road. Six dairy cows are at the booth at all times, with the club rotating cattle so they do not get overworked. However, the club’s most productive cow, Chobani, will be there the rest of the week.
Members of the Animal Science Club aren’t the only NC State students working the fair. Members of the Veterinary School’s Bovine Club also work shifts in the livestock building. Bovine is the scientific name for cattle, according to Jessica Loyd, a second-year vet student.
Loyd said they are all trying to earn extra funds to go on their annual Cowabunga trip, which offers members of the Bovine Club the opportunity to travel to different parts of the United States to visit cow operations.
Worth also shared ways for the public to learn more about cattle at the dairy museum also on Lake Wheeler Road. The facility offers a similar experience to the Animal Science Club booth, allowing people to milk cows and observe dairy productions.
