A sunny Friday morning brought people of all ages together for one purpose: to learn about dairy cows.

The ISU Dairy Farms hosted its ninth annual open house on Friday morning. There were free tours offered around the farm, as well as treats for attendants. The tours began at 6:30 a.m. and ended by 11 a.m.

Tours were guided mostly by ISU dairy faculty and students.

“There’s certain things we want [attendants] to understand [from the tour guides], like animal care, what we do with our fertilizer, etc.,” event coordinator Professor Leo Timms said. “You also want someone who can be versatile enough, that understands dairy that can answer those types of questions that a preschooler might ask.”

The tours began in the milking center, where there was a window view of cows hooked up to milking machines. Tour attendants were next brought into a room right off that to learn about procedures the milk collected from the cows endures, like how milk starts out at about 101 degrees Fahrenheit but is brought down to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Attendants then exited the milking center to begin the outdoor portion of the tour. Pick-up trucks hitched to trailers with benches drove the attendants around the farm while tour guides explained what each building’s purpose was.

Although the farm is set on 887 acres, the tour did not reach out quite that far. The tour went by several buildings, however, like the hospital barn, the lactating barn and the calf nursery.

The tour guides paced each tour out with several facts about the dairy farm, like how it currently is holding 365 milking cows. They also talked about different ways they keep the milk safe, like testing it for antibiotics three times before it leaves the farm.

Timms said that many people are unaware of Iowa State having a dairy farm in Ames, and this is one of the purposes for the event.

“Our purpose here is to open it up and allow people to see what dairy producers do,” Timms said. “[There are] lots of questions about how we care for our animals, how we care for our environment, are our products safe, and this allows people to come and enjoy it in an atmosphere to learn and ask questions.”

The tour concluded at the machine storage building, where there were several booths from different agriculture commodities, like Hiland Dairy and Iowa Soybean Association. These companies offered different interactive activates and more treats, like ice cream and doughnuts.

Some attendants had good things to say about their experiences.

“[The tour] was really good, and it was really informative,” Story City resident and second-time visitor Sabrina Gogerty said. “I learned something that I don’t remember learning last time.”

Other first-timers also were pleased with the tour. Paul and Cheryl White of Ames both agreed that they enjoyed going through each barn the best, and that they would be interested in coming back again for another event at the dairy farm.

“I grew up on a farm, and dairy farming is a lot different with the technology than it was when we were growing up doing it by hand,” Cheryl White said. “It was fun to see.”