Belle, the brown cow with puppy-dog eyes, floppy ears, and famous for her ice cream commercials, makes her home here along with a menagerie of other farm critters waiting for friendly visitors to arrive. The Frerichs family farm has become a touchstone for hundreds of city folks cut off from their rural roots. As soon as you get out of the car at the red barn, the sights, smells, and sounds of a working dairy farm fill the dusty air. The farm is a favorite school field trip, Belle's fan club wanted to see her in person, and inviting city folk out was a good way to market their gourmet cheeses.
Visitors can get as much or as little of the farm experience as they want.
Tractor-pulled hay wagons take the curious on tours of the real dairy farm over a hill and out of sight of the red welcoming shed. Milk becomes more than something in plastic jugs as you follow the process from feed growing in the fields to the automated milking equipment in the big barn. The short course in dairy farming lasts about an hour or so and includes the opportunity to try hand-milking a patient cow. Or a visit to the Barnyard can be a scoop of Blue Bell ice cream and a quiet moment looking over the wind-swept pastures. There is a bench under a tree next to a re-circulating pond for just such an opportunity.