SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Teachers can bring a farm to their classroom with American Dairy Association North East’s free virtual farm tours being offered in March.
Geared toward elementary and high school students, real-time video chats provide the opportunity to interact live with dairy farmers. The hosts will show how they care for the cows and the land, and how high-quality milk is produced for consumers. Students will also be able to send questions to the farmers, who will answer live.
“We encourage dairy farmers to invite local teachers to register for one of the tours geared toward their specific age group” said ADA North East CEO Rick Naczi. “Since consumers are so removed from production agriculture, this gives us a chance to positively tell the dairy story with young people who are our current and future milk-drinkers.”
Tours in March include:
March 22 – grades 4-6, hosted by George Andrew of El-VI Farms, LLC, Newark, New York
March 27 – grades 7-12, hosted by Katie Dotterer-Pyle of Cow Comfort Inn, Union Bridge, Maryland
March 29 – grades Pre-K-3, hosted by Nate Chittenden of Dutch Hollow Farm, Schodack Landing, New York
Tours for grades 4-12 are 45 minutes, and 30 minutes for the Pre-K-third graders.
ADA North East hosted its first virtual farm tour program last fall, with more than 3,000 students from 107 school in 19 states participating. Teacher evaluations were reviewed, and their suggestions were incorporated to enrich the experience for the March tours.
To watch the previous tours or to register for the upcoming tours, visit AmericanDairy.com and click on “Virtual Farm Tour.” Contact Emma Andrew Swarthout at eandrew@milk4u.org for additional information.
About American Dairy Association North East
American Dairy Association North East (ADA North East) is the dairy farmer-funded organization funded by participating dairy farmer’s checkoff investment to build demand and sales for milk and dairy foods throughout the local region. Representing nearly 12,000 dairy farm families in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey and northern Virginia, ADA North East develops and implements local programs to drive milk and dairy sales at retail outlets and in schools. The organization also conducts consumer education about dairy through events, traditional and social media, and in collaboration with health professionals through National Dairy Council®. ADA North East works closely with Dairy Management Inc.™, the national dairy checkoff organization, to support nutrition research, national partnerships and developing export markets for dairy to bring a fully integrated promotion program to the region. For more information, visit www.americandairy.com.
