SYRACUSE — The Northern Indiana Dairy Trail, which celebrates Indiana dairy industry and National Dairy month, continued Saturday, June 25, at Oneeda Farm, owned by Roger and Camille Hibschman and their children.

Anywhere from 500 to 600 people were expected to stop by the dairy farm to take a tour and learn where milk and other dairy products come from. Visitors learned about the importance of calf care, the importance of the females as well as what cows eat.

Glenn Knowles, a dairy nutritionist who works with the Hibschman family, explained cows eat about 110 pounds a day and drink between 40 and 50 gallons of water. Since the Hibschman’s have various age groups of cows in their herd, mixing feed takes about half a day.

Visitors  learned how dairy farmers strive to have happy cows. When cows are not in the milking parlor, they are usually in a large barn, where they can eat, take advantage of the automatic back scratcher and when its really hot, an occasional cool mist from water misters.

Visitors noticed some cows had collars on them, kind of a bovine fitbit, which measured how much movement the cow was making during the day.

Cows are milked three times a day and each cow gives 95 pounds of milk over the course of a day. The milk is placed in a holding tank which is emptied every day. Milk from Oneeda farms sold to either Dean Foods or to cheese processors in Wisconsin.

Oneeda Farm has about 190 registered holsteins as well as a few Brown Swiss and Jersey cows.