McCarty Family Farms and Cargill Open Dairy Nutrition Exhibits
New exhibits supported by the Cargill Cares Council are now operating at the Judy McCarty Dairy Learning Center in Kansas and the MVP Dairy Learning Center in Ohio. They combine educational activities with information about dairy farming, animal nutrition, science and technology for students, families and other community visitors.
The displays use games and a simulated farm experience to show how feed decisions affect dairy cattle and milk production. Visitors can formulate a ration for a cow and trace milk from the farm through to the consumer. The centres also present information on farm management, environmental stewardship and animal-care practices.
Since the two facilities opened, they have hosted more than 100,000 people through onsite and virtual programmes. Those visitors have come from all 50 US states and from more than 75 countries. At the farms, guests can watch cows being milked and see aspects of contemporary dairy operations.
McCarty Family Farms runs five dairy farms in Kansas, including a principal operation with 10,000 cows. The family jointly operates MVP Dairy in Ohio, which has more than 4,000 cows. Both businesses are fourth-generation farming operations, and their learning centres offer programmes for people seeking information about dairy production and the wider food system.
Cargill supplies nutrition services for milk-producing cows at the McCarty Family Farms and MVP Dairy operations. The arrangement brings together the farms’ practical experience and Cargill’s animal-nutrition expertise.
Ken McCarty, a co-owner of McCarty Family Farms and MVP Dairy, said that helping people learn where food comes from and how animals are treated is important to the future of dairy farming. Phil Graham, managing director of Cargill Animal Nutrition & Health North America, said healthy animals form an important base for dairy farms. He said the learning centres give communities a way to engage with agriculture and may interest people who later work in the sector.
The new displays expand educational activities at the Kansas and Ohio sites and add to the companies’ work on dairy sustainability, innovation and agricultural education. The centres link information about nutrition with cow care, farm operations and the technologies used in modern dairy production.
