GINA ON THE JOB: Dairy Farmer

CAMPBELLSBURG, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky is home to nearly 700 dairy farms, producing more than 125 million gallons of milk a year. WDRB's Gina Glaros tried her hand at being a farmer on this week's edition of "Gina on the Job."

Gina visited Terry Rowlett, a local dairy farmer in Kentucky. "Well Gina, I'm going to teach you to drive a bobcat, scrape the alley ways, we're going to do some feeding of the cows, TMR mixing, milking and if we have time, we might go feed the calves," Rowlett said.

A lesson was in order in Bobcat driving was in order first. "The farther you push them forward like this, the faster you're gonna go."

It took some time, but she started to get the hang of it.

"Push the manure that's been gathered here and push it over to the pit," Rowlett said.

Rowlett and his farm hands bring the manure to the pit twice a day. "We store it there. We've got to get it full. Then, we'll haul it down onto our cropland. Our corn fields, hay fields, tobacco ground and use it as nutrients. It helps save cost on fertilization."

Preparing the cows' feed is next. These days, technology eliminates time and helps farmers' bottom line. "We know how much soilage, how much hay weighs and how much grain mix we put in, according to what the nutritionist tells us to do."

Rowlett stressed how healthy cows translate to healthy milk. "It just bothers me that consumers at least don't know where their actual milk comes from and that's one of the reasons I let you all come here because it's a way to show them."

At 4 o'clock, all 86 cows know it's time to line up at the milk room for the second time that day, so Gina rubs off the dirt and sanitizes with a yellow spray.

"Here comes the fun part," Rowlett said. "You've got to milk a stream or two out of it."

It's harder than it looks. After several attempts and some help, Gina dried the cow off and attached a milker which suctions onto the udder. Between eight and nine gallons of milk per cow a day will go into a giant tank before it's picked up and sold in Kentucky.

Where will Gina go next? Email her or reach out to her on Facebook or Twitter to make a "Gina on the Job" suggestion.