From elementary and middle school to high school, college and beyond, the Dairy Excellence Foundation offers curriculum, interactive dairy education programs, scholarships and internships to students of all ages – all available at no cost thanks to our donors and partners. As the 2023-24 school year is in sight, learn more about how these programs are helping students of all ages connect with dairy farmers in their communities, learn where their food comes from and explore career opportunities in the dairy industry.
Adopt a Cow program: Elementary and middle school
Discover Dairy’s Adopt a Cow program is now open for enrollment for the 2023-24 school year. The free program, which has impacted more than 1.2 million students worldwide, is a yearlong, interactive learning opportunity that gives students an inside look at a dairy farm in the U.S. At the heart of the program is the ability for students to watch a baby calf grow in front of their eyes throughout the school year with photos, video updates and activity sheets. Through immersive, hands-on learning activities and free curriculum provided by Discover Dairy, students gain a deeper understanding of the dairy industry and where their food comes from.
The Adopt A Cow program has impacted more than 1.2 million students worldwide. Photo provided by Emily Barge.
“I would encourage other teachers to take advantage of all the Adopt a Cow resources because it’s free to us as teachers,” says Anna Breitbach, a first-grade teacher in south Florida and program participant. “The program makes such great connections. Students learn to appreciate where their food comes from and are able to put a face to the milk at the grocery store. It’s giving kids those opportunities to connect what they’re learning in school to what’s going on in the community. I think it’s very important for students to understand their communities. Everyone says school is meant to teach children how to be citizens. In order to be a good citizen in your country, you need to know the backbone of it. There are people who work every day taking care of animals and producing our food. It’s important to know that, so you can appreciate what you have.”
Students in a virtual-learning environment take part in Discover Dairy's Adopt A Cow program. Photo provided by Emily Barge.
The program also offers live virtual chats and farm tours. These chats allow students to talk directly with a dairy farmer, meet their calves, tour the farm and ask questions about milk production. The sign-up period opened May 1 and closes Sept. 15.
To encourage a teacher you know to enroll in the program, visit the website.
Discover Dairy: Elementary and middle school
Discover Dairy is a cross-curricular, multi-level lesson series available online for elementary and middle school teachers who are in a traditional classroom or home-school setting. Two complete lesson series, one for third to fifth grade and one for sixth to eighth grade, are available. The lesson series includes free videos, lesson plans, guided reading materials, classroom activities and assessment-based worksheets. The program also features a wide range of classroom enrichment activities, including virtual farm tours, educational dairy videos, games, e-books and classroom materials like graphics and posters.
“This is our first year following along with Discover Dairy and using some of the curriculum and activities,” says Becky Norton, a home-school teacher and program user. “Our eventual goal is to move to Kansas to live on our family’s cattle farm, so we have been able to relate the Discover Dairy activities [to our family]. Bringing that home really gave my kids a better insight into what our family’s day consists of as cattle farmers. The lessons have been really easy to follow along with. In a classroom setting, teachers could pick out age-appropriate activities and do a lot of cross-curricular activities. You can pull in agriculture, math and language arts too.”
Becky Norton's home-school students learn about dairy farming through the Adopt A Cow program. Photo provided by Emily Barge.
For teachers interested in hands-on learning and giving students a tour of a progressive dairy farm in the U.S., Discover Dairy also offers farm tour field trip grants each year.
To sign up for a free account and have access to lesson plans and resources, register here.
Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow: High school
Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow (DLT) is a program designed specifically to prepare high school students to work in the dairy industry. A three-part model program, DLT offers classroom instruction, on-farm experiences and scholarship opportunities. The curriculum includes four main courses: Introduction to Dairy, Introduction to Dairy Herd Management, Introduction to Dairy Business Management and Introduction to Dairy Technologies.
Lesson plans and associated resources can be accessed online and downloaded at no cost once educators or students complete the registration. Scholarship opportunities and on-farm experiences are also available throughout the year as well as a Careers in Dairy video library and virtual farm tour videos.
"I’ve decided to incorporate Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow into my curriculum because it creates hands-on experiences for students to learn about where their food comes from and how animals are treated properly and ethically in the animal science industry,” says Jenna Kibbe, a high school agriculture teacher and DLT user at Cumberland Valley High School in Pennsylvania. “Whether my students come from a farming background or not, they’re really learning the ins and outs of how to care for animals and how to be supporters of the animal science industry in the future.”
To sign up for a free account and have access to the courses and resource library, visit the website.
To learn how you can help share these dairy education programs with teachers and parents in your community this school year, contact:
Brittany Snyder – Discover Dairy and Adopt a Cow: bsnyder@centerfordairyexcellence.org, (717) 346-0849
Michelle Shearer – Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow: mshearer@centerfordairyexcellence.org, (717) 346-0849
Go online to learn more about the Dairy Excellence Foundation, or to get involved in the programs and support the mission.
The Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation of Pennsylvania is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-deductible organization that is Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) approved. Established in 2010, the foundation’s mission is to build and invest in programs that cultivate and empower the next generation of producers, consumers and advocates for the dairy industry.
