More than 30 students from across the globe visited a local family-owned farm to learn more about dairy farming, take a hayride tour, pet animals and enjoy samples of milk on Saturday.
The dairy farm excursion, hosted by Devil’s Detours, gave students the opportunity to visit Superstition Farm in Mesa and learn about local dairy production.
Devil’s Detours is a program that hosts one on-campus and one off-campus event each semester geared toward international students and students interested in cross-cultural exchange.
Ayumi Kunihiro, a management intern for the Student Organization Resource Center who organized the first ever Devil’s Detour outing, said the point to having one off-campus event is to provide international students with an American cultural experience.
“We wanted to give students a platform to mingle and have fun and learn about each other, America, Arizona and ASU,” Kunihiro said.
Students met on the Tempe campus Saturday morning and rode on a school bus to the farm, located less than 25 minutes away.
Mohd Alyousuf, a civil engineering student from Dubai, said he got an e-mail about the event and decided to come.
Alyousuf said he came on the trip because he wanted “to see more places in Arizona and meet new friends.”
Once everyone was off the bus, the tour guide rang a bell and called the group into a large garage that had been converted into a makeshift classroom with hay barrel seats and a dry erase board.
Inside the rustic classroom, students learned about dairy production and facts about the farm and cows.
The farm has more than 1,000 dairy cows that on average produce eight gallons of milk per day.
Elina Kemppainen, a chemistry graduate student from Finland, said she “learned some new English words, like what a cow is called before she has any babies.”
After the lecture, students got in a trailer pulled by a tractor that drove them around the farm, and they learned about how the farm operates and cares for the cows.
Larry Hoing, who guided students during the hayride, said there are a lot people who have never been on a farm before and do not understand the farming and production process behind items like milk.
“You ask [some children] where milk comes from, and they will tell you it comes from the grocery store,” Hoing said. “They have never been on a farm and realized [the processes] involved with it.”
For many of the students on the excursion this was their first time on a farm.
Students got the opportunity to feed and pet horses, goats, a sheep, a donkey and a rabbit in the farm’s petting zoo after the hayride.
Jasmine Pan, a mathematics student from China, said she had never been to a farm and was nervous to feed the animals
“I was afraid the horse might bite my hand,” Pan said.
At the end of the farm tour, students enjoyed a sample of milk from the milk bar where they choose between 12 different flavors like lime, grape or chocolate to put into their drink.
Devil’s Detour will take students to the ASU women’s basketball game on Dec. 4 for free as part of their on-campus portion of the program.
Reach the reporter at lpalmisa@asu.edu
