Tonight we had Coconut Shrimp (Hand breaded fried shrimp, sweet Thai chili sauce), Candied Pork Chop (Marinated pork chop, bacon, brown sugar, Parmesan cheese; served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes) and what turned out to be an enormous side of French fries.

Although the coating was falling of the pork chop, it was my favorite part of the meal, tender with a nice flavor.

Across Kansas Avenue, I photographed the life sized statue of Topeka's Harry W. Colmery who authored The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the G. I. Bill. Colmery's statue is flanked by two relief statues. Colmery is saluting a row of veterans in uniform, while the relief behind him has veterans in work apparel for the jobs they achieved after their education which were funded by the G. I. Bill. It can be found on the sidewalk in front of 919 S. Kansas Avenue.

Harry W. Colmery Statue

Continuing west, I took a few photos from the car, but we drove through to Colby, Kansas, to have lunch at J & B Meat Market. We had a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, sour cream potato wedges and ribeye sandwich. The steak sandwich had great flavor, but I wish I had known that you have to request they grill the onion on it, which would have made it even better.

In Colby we photographed the famous Wheat Jesus billboard on I-70, Colby Visitor's Center made of local limestone surrounding a grain bin, and the Kansas State University Western Kansas Research-Extension Center. The research center isn't really an attraction and doesn't bill itself as one, but several other places had promoted it as one.

At Fike Park we found four very nice chain saw sculptures, a BSA Statue of Liberty replica and a mural covered rest room.

After a short drive east to Rexford, Kansas, we were met at the Judy McCarty Dairy Learning Center by Jessica BugBee and Shelly Macumber. They are the Program & Outreach Coordinator and Communications Coordinator for McCarty Family Farms, LLC.

McCarty Family Farms is a 4th generation dairy farm headquartered in Rexford, with additional facilities in Beaver City, Nebraska and Bird City & Scott City, Kansas. There are 10,000 Hereford cows at this location.

The Judy McCarty was the mother of the four brothers who head the farms today and was a former school teacher who led tours of the facility for many years. The Learning Center opened in June, 2024 and there is no admission charge nor request for donations.

As you arrive at the Learning Center, there is a sign saying "Come See the Cows." The Learning Center has galleries with interactive educational displays, a gift shop, and a glass wall overlooking a 120 stall milking carousel. It is fascinating watching the cows enter the room, board the carousel, and take an 8 minute ride while being milked. When the carousel takes them back around, they back out and walk back to their barn. The carousel operates 22 hours a day and each cow is milked three times a day.

The Learning Center is open Tuesday - Saturday and visitors are welcome to drop in. Free tours are offered to groups of 12 or more by appointment. Sometimes it is possible to be combined with other smaller groups to do a tour, plus there is an annual open house when tours are offered. We were treated to a tour to take photos for this website.

The tour is in a small, modern bus. We were surprised to learn that the entire tour is done in the bus, which drives through 4 tunnel ventilated freestall barns housing 5,000 cows. "Freestall" barns have individual stalls for rest and sleep. The cows select their own stall and move freely between the stalls, eating areas, and milking parlors. There are even cool brushes where cows can get a back rub. The fans cooling the barns are maintained at a speed that keeps away flies. Everything is done to keep the cows calm, contented, healthy and productive.

I mentioned there are 10,000 cows. The enormous dairy has a second set of four enormous barns and another carousel.

The tour also goes through the area where feed is carefully mixed, the sand used for bedding is reclaimed, water is reclaimed, and enough methane is captured to power 12,000 homes. The manure is used as fertilizer at neighboring farms.

The milk produced at this facility and McCarty's three other dairies is condensed at McCarty's own Condensing Plant across the highway. The condensed milk all goes by truck to the Danone plant in Fort Worth, Texas where it becomes Danon and other yogurt products. 

A tour concludes back at the Learning Center with a chance to try one of the many products Danon produces from McCarty milk. We had a Chobani 20g Protein Peach Yogurt Drink and YoCrunch Vanilla Low Fat Yogurt with Mini M&Ms.

More to come...
  
  

Ribeye Sandwich & Bacon Cheeseburger
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Milking Carousel
 
 
 

McCarty Family Farms, LLC