Local Milk for Sale and Dairy Tours at Hastings Dairy

This spring and summer we're offering special events open to the public and milk for sale produced at our new on-farm creamery. 

Buy Fresh Milk at Hastings Dairy

Open: Daily 1:00pm – 5:00pm 
Milk is bottled at the new on-farm Rowdy Cow Creamery. Non-homogenized (cream on the top) whole milk in white and flavors is low temperature vat pasteurized in small batches to maintain its natural nutrients and great flavor. This is one of only a few farmstead milk bottling operations in Ohio.

My sons, Jack and Garrett, with bottles of Rowdy Cow milk

Cow Tales Adventures (for children 5 & under w/ caregiver)
May 20 and June 3 from 10:00am-12:00pm @ $6/person (12 months & under free)
This farm adventure allows young children and caregivers to take a wagon ride around the farm, pet the calves, ride the train, play, and have fun! Arrive by 10am and plan to be at the farm until 12pm to take part in all of the activities. Milk will be available to buy.  

A young visitor taking a spin at Cow Tales

Loading up for a ride on the Chugga Chugga Moo Moo Train

Milk from Cow to Bottle Tour & Tasting 
May 16, June 14 and July 3 1:00-3:00pm @ $6/person (12 months & under free)
Interested in tasting delicious fresh milk and meeting the cows who produced it? Attend “Milk from Cow to Bottle Tour & Tasting”. This event will include milking parlor tours, wagon rides, petting the calves, the cow train for kids, viewing the creamery, and milk tasting. This is an open house, so visitors can come and go during the event. Milk will be available to buy.  

A highlight of the tour is interacting with the calves

The wagon ride takes visitors through the barn to see the cows

Parking is free. Activities are outdoors and indoors. No reservations are necessary. Remember, you're visiting a farm so dress for the occasion. Milk will be for sale during all tours and events, so bring your cooler. The farm is located at 13181 Claridon Troy Road, Burton, OH 44021.

If you have a group of 16 or more, book a private tour of the farm. Group tours are perfect for schools, day camps, scouts, 4-H clubs, play groups, senior groups or any group! Looking for a unique party experience? Check out our party packages which provide private use of our facility.

The playground is lots of fun!

 My family is excited to offer dairy tours and farm fresh local milk! For information about Rowdy Cow Creamery, the Cow Tales and Milk Tasting events, private tours or party packages, go to http://hastingsdairy.com/ or contact me at hastings97@gmail.com.

Milk’s Journey From Cow To Table

The milk from our cows takes a journey that brings it from our farm to your table. Along the way, steps are taken to ensure milk quality which will result in the delicious dairy products you enjoy consuming. Each of our cows comes to the milking parlor three times each day to be milked. To produce quality milk, cows must eat a well balanced diet, drink lots of water and be healthy and comfortable.

Come with me on the journey of our milk.

Milking claws milk the cows. . .

Milk travels down the tubes connected to the milking claws. The blue box is a milk meter which measures the number of pounds each cow produces during one milking (8.6 lbs = 1 gallon). This is one of our higher producing cows. . .

Milk travels to the milk meter which is located in the basement. There is a milk meter for each milking claw in the milking parlor. We milk 24 cows at one time, so there are 24 milk meters in the basement. . .

Milk flows from the meters to the stainless steel pipe located under the meters. . .

The pipeline delivers milk into this small tank called a receiving jar. . .

The long tube is a milk filter which is located between the receiving jar and the plate cooler. This filter is changed after each milking – 3 times every day. . .

After going through the filter, milk enters the plate cooler where is cools from 100 degrees (its temperature when it leaves to cow) to approximately 50 degrees. . .

Lad checks the temperature gage on the plate cooler to make sure milk is being cooled to the correct temperature. . .

All of this milking equipment is washed after each milking - 3 times in a 24 hour period. It goes through a 3-cycle cleansing process that takes about 40 minutes.

The milk travels up though pipes into one of our two stainless steel bulk tanks. Milk is stored at 38 degrees in these tanks until the milk truck arrives each day. . .

Milk is pumped through a hose from our bulk tank onto the milk truck. . .

The hose is attached to the milk truck which will transport our milk to the processor.

The bulk tanks must be cleaned each time they are unloaded. On our farm, one tank is unloaded and cleaned daily and the other is every other day. This involves a 5-step wash cycle which takes about 40 minutes.

The milk truck travels to the processing plant where milk is tested for quality before being unloaded. . .

Our milk travels six miles to Middlefield Cheese where it is made into Swiss cheese.

After being pasteurized and processed, the end product is Swiss cheese. This is cheese made with milk from our cows at a local grocery store. . .

The milking parlor at our farm is operating 24 hours a day; milking cows 22 hours and cleansing equipment two hours.

Hope you enjoyed going on the journey of our milk!