Workers at Smith Dairy Farms milk 1,100 cows three times a day in this high-tech milking parlor. Even after 19 years of dairy farming, Jeff Smith is surprised at how little people know about how fresh milk goes from cow to grocery store, and he's using his farm to help bridge that gap with information.

Smith's operation on Centerville Road in Wilkes County is by far the county's largest dairy farm. His crew of 10 milks 1,100 cows three times a day in a 24-hour, 7-day business, and a sophisticated system of sensors and computers help Smith track each cow.

"When I give tours, people are amazed at how complicated it is, how much data we collect and how we feed and milk our cows," Smith said. "It's not like 50 years ago when the cows were out in the field, then you milked them, and it went to the store. Not at all."

Smith, who has been raising dairy cows since getting his Ag Education degree at the University of Georgia, has steadily added to the herds he and his brother Stephen ranched in Madison. Now his operation has expanded to include a high-tech milk- ing operation in Wilkes County, and Smith finds the need for educational outreach even greater. "People just don't have any idea what goes into producing the food they eat. It's a lot more involved, there's more technology, more efficiency that people expect. And they're surprised at how much of an investment it takes to get a product."

Jeff Smith (left) monitors the temperature of milk in two 5,500 gallon cooling tanks that chill the milk for transport. Smith can look over his busy milking stalls from an enclosed monitoring office, and is able to monitor the whole operation with cameras. Cows come in herds from the barn and are herded into the milking stations, where their ID tags are automatically scanned and reported to the office computer. The computer records how many pounds of milk each cow gives at each of three milkings, and the dairy farm program may suggest changes in feeding or change the cow's herd assignment based on output and the cow's breeding cycle.

"This gives me exact data on each cow, each milking, and allows me to fine-tune each cow's output," he said.

Just as the high technology used in milking cows surprises visitors, the cows' diet is far more complex than expected. "We don't graze our cows, we feed them every four hours, four to eight to a stall in the barn, with water, fans, and mist keeping them cool." The feed is a blend of hay, straw, corn salad, hominy distillate, whole cotton seed, citrus pulp, plus vitamins and minerals.

To meet the high standards of dairy industry and government regulations, Smith said, each eight-hour shift includes three hours of cleaning and inspection. The milk produced - as much as 10,000 gallons a day - is held and chilled in two large tanks, and is shipped in special insulated tanker trucks to wherever the market is best.

The destination for Smith's milk is determined by the market, and the farmers' cooperative Dairy Farmers of America finds the best price for his output. "This week the milk is going to Miami, next week it could be Mayfield's in Atlanta. They dispatch the milk to the best market."

In an effort to reach out and help non-farmers understand the food production process, Smith has been giving tours of his dairy farm for years. "We had 150 pre-k kids last week," he said, "and Eric Holton brings older groups of kids for tours. But it's the adults that ask some of the funniest questions."

To help reach out to the public and tell the story of Wilkes County's top industry, Smith and other agricultural producers have created the Wilkes Agri-Forestry Council, and the group elected him chairman. He also serves as vice president of the Georgia Milk Producers.

The outreach effort is aimed at stemming the conflicts that naturally arise as city populations spread into the country. "As people move out to the country more and more, we're realizing that they need to know more about the reality of food production that's going on there, and that sometimes it's not all pretty scenery. Sometimes it's chicken litter being sprayed on a field and it's going to stink. But once they get a chance to see how the food they eat is produced, they begin to understand it's all part of life in an agricultural county. It comes with the territory."