Maple View Farm, a 400 acre dairy farm located in Hillsborough, North Carolina, is home to over 350 cows, 5 full time employees and a multitude of farmworkers. The farm is a small farm, locally known, and visited frequently. It is a main provider of milk to many stores and businesses in the area. It is home to the Maple View Farm Milk Company, the Maple View Agriculture Center, and the Maple View Ice Cream Store. Maple View is one of the few remaining farms in the area.

The Maple View Agriculture Center was established in 2009 to serve as an educational facility to teach children about the importance of agriculture and farming. All of the programs align with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in Science. The farm believes it is important for children to have a chance to learn about the importance of farming in North Carolina as the practice is dying out slowly yet is still an important part of the culture of the state. The facilitly offers hands on experiences which includes a hay ride through the farm itself so the children have a chance to see the cows while they learn about the farm. The Agriculture Center promotes sustainable agriculture and farm life.

Bob forces a vitamin and elecrolyte mix into one of the older cows on the farm. Any female cow that has had more than two calfs is required to take the mixture. The pregnancy and giving birth process wears and tears on a cow's body, and the farm wants to make sure they stay strong. Bob Jackson is the farm's herdsman. He works on the farm morning till night, tending to the cows and land while also managing the breeding and calf raising. Jackson grew up on farms and has done farmwork his entire life. He knows everything there is to know about cows and dairy farms, especially Maple View. He is one of the few old farming souls left on the farm and in the area.

Cows are milked three times a day in a double six herringbone parlor. Each cow takes about 4 minutes to milk with a milking machine. The milking process takes about three hours. Only one person is needed to assist the cows in milking, as the milking machine has digital meters and automatic take-offs. The milking machine is a modern process for an old-school farm devoted to sustaining agriculture and farm life.

Maple View has an on-farm bottling operation as it increases the farm's profitablility. Roger Nutter, the son of Maple View Owner Bob Nutter, is the plant manager for the Maple View Farm Milk Company. The company bottles their whole milk, skim milk, reduced fat milk, and chocolate milk every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The process starts at 5:30 a.m. and usually lasts until about 2 p.m. The company has a group of workers who assist in the process and who each have designated roles in the plant. The on-farm bottling operation is unique as many dairy farms sell their milk to large companies such as PET and Maola. Maple View wants to try for as long as it can to stick to its small, local farming tradition.

Bob Jackson walks one of the cows to the feeding area as the sun hits down hard on him on a warm afternoon. Dairy farming is hard work, but Jackson says he loves it and never plans on leaving it. That is the sentiment among all of the full time employees on the farm. They are passionate about farming and say they are going to keep Maple View around for as long as they possibly can.

Roger Nutter smells the freshley sown silage used to feed the cows. Roger says he loves the smell of it. About one hundred fifty acres are sown in barley in the fall and one hundred thirty acres of corn are planted in the spring. Barley Silage, corn silage, corn, and whole cotton seed are mixed with the silage to be fed to the cows. The mix is used to increase the protein content of the milk as the farm belives proten is becoming more important to people who drink milk. The farm says the protein content enhances the good taste of the milk. The cows are fed twice a day.

Bob takes a break from work to speak to his son, Roger. Bob Nutter is the owner of Maple View Farm, Inc. Now 85 years old, Bob is semi-retired. But due to his long life committed to farming as well as his passion for it, you can find Bob on his tractor any day of the week and "retired" isn't often used in reference to him. He is also the errand runner and tour guide at the Agriculture Center. Bob is working toward handing over full ownership of the herd to Mike Strowd who took over active management of the farm in 2008. Maple View hopes by handing over the farm to Mike, the future of the farm will look bright.

Bob Jackson takes a moment to rest while he lets one of thes silos do the work. Maple View almost lost Jackson to N.C. State who asked Bob to come teach and work with the cows on their land. But Bob said he didn't go because he wanted to stay where he was needed most. A small farm does need the help it can get, especially from farmers like Bob. Farms are disappearing at an incredible rate, and many farms around Maple View have had to sell their land in order to survive.

Jackson marks down on his calendar notes about the breeding process for his cows. The farm uses genetics to impregnate the cows and to keep the herd growing. Jackson is in charge of the entire process. Heifers are raised as replacement cows for the milking herd or for sale as breeding stocks. The heifers are bred artificially. Jackson has detailed notes on all of his cows who go through this process. It his job to inseminate the cows, to check if they are preganant, to look over the birthing process, and to give all of the cows shots to make sure they remain healthy.

A newborn calf is fed by bottle on the farm. Each newborn calf is kept with its mother for the first day and then is taken to an individual house, or a hutch. The calves and cows are moved to larger houses and pens as they grow until they are old enough to be moved to pasture. The calves are fed colostrum, or the milk from a cow who has just calved, for the first day. It is full of antibodies and nutrients. The calves are then fed fresh milk. After three days they are fed calf grain. Around two months of age, calves are weaned. Cows only live 5-6 years and start having their first calves around age two.

The Maple View Herd has continued to develop through milk testing and artificial insemination. Maple View Farm has a goal to continue to produce the highest quality milk possible, to educate school children and adults on the process of dairy farming, to preserve the rural culture of the countryside even while growth continues in the Research Triangle area, and to promote sustainable agriculture. But over time this has proved difficult as the culture of farming and the importance of agriculture slowly fades away. Maple View is devoted to keeping up their farming for as long as possible.