Tails Up In This Emmental Farm

On our way to Bern, Switzerland, we stopped at Emmental cheese county, to see how Swiss cheese is made. This held little appeal to me since I live in the dairy state of Wisconsin, and not a huge fan of cheese.

However, his is the first sight I saw as I stepped off of the bus. How beautiful the snow covered rolling hills looked. This is exactly what I thought Switzerland would look like.

Cheese, butter, and cheese related items for the kitchen filled the first floor of the building.

Plate glass windows surrounded the areas where cheese was being made and housed.

We had the opportunity to visit a nearby farm, this farm was so close we walked there from the cheese house.

The owner of the farm is on the left.
He did not speak English, so our bus driver translated.

Here are a few sights from around the farm.

Our group is about to enter the barn to see the cows.

Emmental cows eat only fresh grass and hay. They are never fed silage. During summers, when they graze in the pastures, they dine on natural herbs. The average dairy farmer owns only about 20 cows, which allows him to care for each animal better, resulting in top quality milk.

Cows waiting their turn to be milked.

The tails of the cows were tied up so they
wouldn't get in the way during milking.

So the trip to Emmental that I thought I wouldn't like turned out to be very enjoyable, with its beautiful scenery. This girl from Wisconsin even liked the tour of the dairy farm. Who knew they tied up the cows tails? I sure didn't.