McCarty Family Farms 120 stall milking carousel - Rexford, Kansas McCarty Family Farms is a 4th generation dairy farm headquartered in Rexford, Kansas with additional facilities in Beaver City, Nebraska and Bird City & Scott City, Kansas. There are 10,000 Holstein cows at this location. The Judy McCarty Dairy Learning Center is named for the late mother of the four brothers who own McCarty Family Farms. The Learning Center opened in June, 2024 and there is no admission charge nor request for donations. Visitors are welcome to drop in. As you arrive at the Learning Center, there is a sign saying "Come See Our 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 dairy has two of these enormous carousels. In addition, free tours are offered to groups of 12 or more by appointment. 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 several tunnel ventilated freestall barns housing 1,250 cows each. "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. 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 Oikos 20g Protein Peach Yogurt Drink and YoCrunch Vanilla Low Fat Yogurt with Mini M&Ms. Visitors who don't take the tour, still get to choose a treat.
copyright 2025-2026 by Keith Stokes |
