MORROW COUNTY, Ohio – The sweltering summer heat couldn’t keep people from Spring Valley Farm on June 22. More than 300 people visited the dairy farm just north of Mt. Gilead, Ohio, as part of the Morrow County Dairy Tour. 

The educational tour was an effort between the Morrow County Dairy Association and the Morrow County Farm Bureau. Visitors were allowed to learn about feeding, care, milk testing, and nutritional food values in the dairy industry.

“It’s an every-other-year thing,” Eileen Eisenhauer, Morrow County Farm Bureau office administrator, said. “The Dairy Association in Morrow County is fairly strong and has a lot of engagement and they generally have a dairy tour scheduled every other year.”

When a dairy farm tour was not scheduled, the Morrow County Farm Bureau worked to set up tours of other agriculture farms and businesses. This is the first year the farm bureau and the dairy association have teamed together to promote the tour.

Spring Valley Farm, host of the event, has been in the Creswell family for generations. Currently, Andy Creswell oversees the large farm and dairy.

“We milk roughly 400 cows and farm around 800 acres of corn, beans, and hay,” Creswell said.

Creswell and his wife Sarah, a school counselor at Northmor High School, are lifelong residents of the area, and along with their three children, Ella, Dane, and Janie, are heavily involved in the agriculture community.

“We’re into dairy, 4-H, FFA and we like to take opportunities like this to share what we have with the community,” Andy and Sarah said.

Morrow County Dairy Association farms volunteer to host the event. This was the second time the Creswells hosted the free educational tour in several years.

Guests were divided into small tour groups and volunteers escorted them through different parts of the farm operation. They were also treated to various refreshments provided by the dairy association and the farm bureau.

“A lot of our volunteers will be there with the farm bureau,” Eisenhower said. “They’ll be helping take groups around to the different stations at the farm and then they’re also serving dairy treats like grilled cheese sandwiches, ice cream, that kind of stuff.”

The tour was advertised on Facebook hoping to attract people who have never seen a working dairy. “This brings people from out of town because they don’t get the chance to see where milk comes from,” Morrow County Farm Bureau trustee and local farmer, Julie Logan said. “We have a lot of people that come that think milk only comes from the grocery store.”

Other volunteers included representatives from the Morrow County Junior Fair Board. “We have five kids out here today helping direct traffic and working wherever they’re needed,” Angie Bush, Junior Fair Board adviser, said.

Junior Fair Board members were there as part of their community service hours. “They donated their time to help with the parking so that those of us on the dairy and the Farm Bureau Board can lead the tours, cook the food, serve the food, be mingling around to answer questions with anything that the general public would like to know,” Logan said. 

The number of visitors didn’t go unnoticed by Bush. “The turnout looks great so far, it looks fabulous, I think they’re very pleased,” she said. “I did one two years ago and it seems like there are more people here now. Did they come early to beat the heat? I don’t know – but we’re glad they’re here.”