Jersey - Day 4

This morning, as part of the Jersey Food Festival, we did a tour of the Jersey Dairy and Trinity Manor dairy farm.  The first part of the tour was a look round the dairy and, after donning some very attractive hair nets, we went and looked at the production line for their milk and yogurt. I thought we would be on the floor watching them as we had to wear the ridiculous hair nets but we were actually in a viewing gallery behind glass and it was the hottest room that I have ever been in - I had a thick jumper on and was sweltering and was really only looking forward to the free ice cream at the end of the tour!

Cow picture on the front of the Jersey Dairy building

The 2nd part of the tour was the bit I was looking forward to - seeing the cows!  It was a 10 minute walk from Jersey Diary to the Trinity Manor dairy farm and believe me when I say we could smell them before we saw them - what a whiff! We met the farm manager who told us about the farm and then we were off to see the cows!  We first saw the calves which were in individual pens - they were so cute but when you went to stroke them they freaked out a bit - all they really wanted to do was lick your hand or suck on your clothes  (random I know but true!).

Calf sucking on Peter's jacket!

I want one!  The only way I could get it to pose was to let it suck on the camera case.

We were then taken in to the main barn where all the bigger cows were kept - the farm manager was telling us all about farming the cows, and was showing us the milking machine but I wasn't really listening as I was too busy looking at all the cows (for those who don't know - I like cows!).

Cows posing!

Cows clambering for a lick of Peter's hand (or was it a nibble of the jacket....)

Evil cow on the right !

Cautiously tickling the cows nose (all she wanted to do was eat my jumper!)

We really enjoyed going to the cow farm and it was good to have the opportunity to go behind the scenes.  It was a day of animals because in the afternoon we went to Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.  The park was founded by Gerald Durrell over 50 years ago where conservationists work closely with the animals to better understand what is required to ensure they survive in their natural habitats.  Our favourites were the gorillas, the lemurs and the meerkats!

Cute meerkats

Peter pretending to be a meerkat (look at the meerkat behind him looking at him!)

Gorilla looking right at me!

Baby gorilla with his mum

He couldn't resist could he!

We enjoyed today and the weather has improved - it is still quite overcast and we had a few spots of rain so hopefully the weather will get better as the week goes along!