Vanessa Bayer is working on a dairy farm in “Dairy Diaries”
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A former member of the Saturday Night Live cast is embarking on a new journey on a U.S. dairy farm.
Vanessa Bayer, who starred on the show for seven years, is the host of “Dairy Diaries,” which sees her spend a week getting a first-hand and up-close experience of working on a dairy farm to understand how dairy products get from the milk to the fridge.
“Many of us never think about where our food actually comes from. When you pour a glass of milk, it’s hard to imagine all of the love, care, and labor it took to get that glass safely to the table,” she said in an ad media interview. “I walked away from this experience with a newfound appreciation for dairy farmers and the industry, and I think you will too.”
Beck Farms, a 2,000-cow, fourth-generation operation in Freeville, N.Y., is the host farm for the five-part series.
“A little nervous of having her here on the farm, given no farm background,” someone says in the show’s trailer. “Definitely like a city mouse popped right in the middle of the country.”
Episode one, which aired April 22, highlighted a day in the life of a dairy farmer while exploring the nutritional benefits of milk.
“We loved sharing our farm with Vanessa and are excited to share it with the world,” Tyler Beck, owner of Beck Farms, said in a press release. “We hope ‘Dairy Diaries’ shows the great pride we take in our responsibility to nourish families with delicious dairy foods. So while it may seem odd to some, we wouldn’t give up the 3:30 a.m. wake-ups for anything.”
The remaining four episodes focus on topics like dairy processing, crops and feed management, animal care and sustainability.
That includes an interview with Dr. Joe McFadden from Cornell University, about the future of the dairy industry, reducing waste and decreasing emissions.
The show is available free on the Roku device, the Roku app, Samsung Smart TV, Amazon Fire and Google TV devices.