Kirktonholme Primary got an exclusive look behind the scenes of an East Kilbride dairy farm's newest business venture.
Park Farm Dairy are soon to be processing and selling their own milk from the farm and P5 pupils got to see how the milk is produced, pasteurised on site and sold in glass bottles through doorstep deliveries.
The cattle are milked on the farm by a series of robotic milking systems and the fresh milk is bottled within hours.
Glen Neilson, who is a volunteer farm host with the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET), takes school groups around the dairy farm, looking at the calves, dairy cattle and feeding systems, handing over to brother Ross, who toured the processing and bottling unit.
Ross Neilson, of What’s Fresh, told Lanarkshire Live : "We always enjoy our visits from the school children and RHET.
"It is a pleasure to teach the children about our farm and also educate them on where their food comes from.
"This is the first visit where we have been able to show the kids our new milk processing facility. This highlights the provenance and traceability of food.
"We will soon be pasteurising and bottling our own milk from our farm and delivering to East Kilbride and surrounding areas. This will reduce food miles and reusable glass bottles will cut down on single use plastics.”
Teacher, Murray Constable, said: "It is very important that children understand where their food and drink comes from.
"Park Farm were perfect hosts sharing knowledge about their family-run farm.
"It was great to see a local farm and how they have developed their part of the supply chain by now distributing their milk fresh from their farm direct to local customers.
"Also thank you to RHET for making this visit happen."
RHET builds bridges and understanding between children (the future consumers), farmers and producers.
They have an ongoing mission to give every school pupil in Scotland the opportunity to visit the outdoors and learn about food, farming and the countryside and also educates young people about rural career opportunities.
If your class (from P2 and upwards) is interested in organising a farm visit in the new term, or if you are a farmer keen to host such a visit, contact clyde@rhet.org.uk.
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