City Kids Milk Dairy Exhibit for Information

With a cow and calf in tow, Denise Skidmore makes daily visits to schools throughout Los Angeles to show children something they may never have seen before: large farm animals.

At Tarzana Elementary School on Wednesday, youngsters petted a 2-month-old calf named Abby and watched as Skidmore milked Maggie, a 4-year-old Holstein cow.

“The children loved it,” said Kristi Thomas, the school’s office manager. “For some of them, it’s the first time they’ve seen a cow.”

The mobile dairy classrooms, consisting of a truck and trailer, were started in the 1940s, following the trend toward urbanization, according to Skidmore, an instructor who operates one of four such classrooms for the Dairy Council of California.

The council, which provides nutritional information to the public and is sponsored by the dairy industry, wanted to give youngsters the chance to see and touch farm animals so they would understand where milk comes from.

Today, the instructors see about 200,000 children a year, and Skidmore said she has a one-year waiting list of schools expecting visits. Her next San Fernando Valley trips will be Friday to Oxnard Street Elementary School in North Hollywood and April 11 to Emelita Street Elementary School.

During 45-minute lessons, Skidmore asks students to use their thumbs to imagine what it’s like to milk a cow, and talks about the different breeds and body features of the animals.

“The further removed we are from agriculture, the more we take our food for granted,” she said. “When we make decisions on agriculture, we make them uninformed, like turning agriculture land into housing.”

The kids, she said, remember her visits.

“I get fan mail,” Skidmore said. “Most children in Southern California don’t get to see an animal that large.”