Good day! How are you doing these days? I hope you are always happy and grateful for everything that is going on in your life. On July 22nd, 2025, our research group did another exciting site visit. This time we visited Isonuma Milk Farm! A dairy farm located in Hachioji, about 10 minutes walk from Yamada station. For any of you who are curious about what is going on in this farm, go check their website! https://www.isonuma-milk.com/blank-1 Anyway, let me tell you about our own experience.
It took about one and a half hours to travel from Ookayama campus to Isonuma Milk Farm by train. As we arrived at the farm, one of the owners warmly welcomed us. A few weeks ago, we made a reservation to visit this farm to do some activities, such as a farm tour, milking experience, butter-making experience, and yogurt-tasting. Thus, we started the visit by going around the farm, with a guide explaining to us about dairy farming. We saw some baby cows (called calves) and watched the lactating cows eat their breakfast. In our lab seminar, we often talked about dairy farming or agriculture in general, but seeing it directly on the field is something else entirely different, which opened up so many new perspectives.
After the farm tour, we planned to do some butter-making. However, because this was in the middle of a hot summer day, doing this activity was not possible without a lot of extra effort. So, we skipped it and went directly to the milking experience. One by one, everyone tried to hand-milk a cow that had been placed in a milking parlor. It was a nice experience to understand that there is a certain technique to hand-milk a cow, and you cannot just squeeze it randomly. After that, we tasted a yogurt that was made on this farm from the cows that we just met.
For me, who is researching dairy farming and the dairy industry, this was an overall good learning experience, especially since I could then compare the conditions between dairy farming in Japan and Indonesia. I noticed that dairy farming in Japan—specifically in Isonuma Milk Farm—is more modernized with technology. This is possible since the farm is a large-scale farm with around 100 cows, compared to the Indonesian dairy farms where the majority are smallholder dairy farmers who only have, on average, 3-4 cows in each household. Nevertheless, the main supply chain was almost similar, where farmers sold their raw milk to dairy cooperatives, and then big dairy processing companies purchased this milk. What makes Isonuma Milk Farm special is that this farm has implemented market and product diversification to be more independent and profitable. It processes its own milk into some products such as yogurt, ice cream, and pudding. It also opens an agri-tourism like what we had just experienced. Lastly, they have a restaurant integrated with a souvenir shop, where you can buy the farm products.
At the end of the visit, we tried their ice cream, which was very delicious, especially during the summer heat!
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