By KAREN BINDER
Illinois correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — What better way to learn where milk comes from than milking a cow, or at least that was the premise behind the University of Illinois Dairy Club’s “Milk A Cow” exhibit.

As many as 2,000 youngsters - and some of their curious parents - were expected to take their turn at this hands-on experience offered by the Dairy Club at this year’s Illinois State Fair in Springfield.

Set up in one of the livestock buildings flagged by a giant, white “Milk A Cow” sign, the $1 demonstration had kids lining up nearly 20 minutes before opening. The children waited as patiently as the dairy cows allowing the up-close encounter, with all eyes watching each visitor in front of them approach the cow and gently pull the teat.

“The kids are a blast,” said dairy club member Britney Cowan, a senior from Mount Pulaski, Ill. “This seems to be one of the things people have on their to-do list while they’re here at the fair.”

Cowan was one of six club members manning the booth. All of the students were already planning to attend the fair to show their own livestock.

Planning to become a high school ag educator, Cowan was showing her milking shorthorn dairy cow, one of six milking cow breeds. Her great, great grandfather selected the breed, and it has stayed on the family’s Laneview Farms in Chestnut ever since, she said. They won two second place and four third place ribbons this year.

Admittedly as rewarding, Cowan said the kids and their reactions are always surprising. While most of them have never touched a cow, she said most of them are plenty confident to touch the cows, but often were afraid to pull too hard on the teats.

“And then there are the questions,” she added.

Do brown cows make chocolate milk? How do you tell the difference between boy and girl cows? How much do they weigh? Do they drink milk, too?

As kids waited their turns, they could also take in information about cows and the range of dairy products. There also was a wall exhibit depicting all of the dairy cows, including Ayrshires, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Holsteins, Jersey and Milking Shorthorns.

In all, the club owns two cows and two heifers, which have not calved and not producing milk yet. The proceeds from the demonstration are used to tend the cows.