Welcome. In this course, you will learn how dairy products get from the farm to your table. Check out the instructor guide in the material tab.
Start with the Dairy on the Farm section and learn how farmers care for their dairy cattle including where they live, what they eat and the standards that farmers must follow to keep their dairy cattle healthy. Then follow dairy from the farm to the store to find out about processing milk and cheese in the Milk at the Grocery Store section. Finally, learn why dairy products are a healthy choice and cook along as we show you how to make a delicious recipe in Dairy in Your Kitchen section.
Course content & objectives
In this course, you will learn how dairy products get from the farm to your table. There are three sections:
Dairy on the Farm – Learn how farmers care for their dairy cattle including where they live, what they eat and the standards that farmers must follow to keep their dairy cattle healthy.
Dairy in the Grocery Store – Follow dairy from the farm to the store to find out about processing milk and cheese.
Dairy in the Kitchen – Learn why dairy products are a healthy choice and cook along as we show you how to make a delicious recipe.
Course Delivery
Using the content on the Canadian Food Focus website, the material can be shared with students through a variety of methods, including:
- Lecture-style presentations by the instructor
- Student group presentations on each of the topic areas in the course
- Individual students selecting a specific topic to write about using information provided on the website and other resources
- Self-guided study with students completing quizzes at the end of each topic
- Team competitions at the end of each course to see which team gets the most quiz answers correct
Suggested Activities
- Invite a dairy farmer to come and talk with your class about raising dairy cattle and how they take care of their animals. Topics could include animal welfare, cow nutrition, housing, milking systems and the role of veterinarians on a dairy farm.
- Organize a field trip to a dairy processing plant to learn about milk processing. Ask them to talk about 1) how milk is prepared for the grocery store, including sanitation, pasteurization and homogenization 2) how cheese is made and 3) how yogurt is made.
- Watch the “Mac n’ Cheese Muffins” video and then prepare the muffins as a group. Discuss the results. What did you do correctly? What could you have done better? Brainstorm ingredients that could be used to replace the macaroni and the different cheeses you could use. Discuss how you would serve the muffins and what your accompaniments might be.