Talk about happy cows… At Graywall Farms in Lebanon, the cows are misted to keep them cool, and when they’re milked, they stand on rubberized mats. They also get to decide when they want to be milked.

These are a few things visitors learned about one of the six local farms that make up the Farmer’s Cow dairy company during the first of a series of tours of the company’s farms, on June 13.

There was a steady stream of visitors, which was good news for the farm’s operators , Robin Chesmer and his son, Lincoln. It was a chance to teach people about how much work goes into producing milk and to let them sample some of the Farmer’s Cow products.

Since the company launched about six years ago, it has branched out into other products, including half-and-half cream, eggs and what they’ve dubbed “the Farmer’s Daughters’” beverage – cider and iced tea. On Saturday, visitors also were treated to samples of the newest product, an iced tea-lemonade combo.

The main attraction, though, was the cows. Graywall Farms has about 400 dairy cows, mostly Holsteins and 280 calves.

Children approached the cows as they munched on feed and squealed when they realized it was okay to pat their heads.

Two-year-old Juliette was especially curious about the cows – and everything else about the farm – and sometimes had to be corralled by her parents.

“Some of the information is more complicated than they can understand, but I explain things to them,” said their father, Francois Courtin.

Originally from France, he and his family moved to Storrs about two years ago. Being a veterinarian working for the University of Connecticut makes it a little easier to explain things to his children, he said.

The adults on the tour had plenty of questions for Lincoln Chesmer, who led one of the tours and outlined the entire process – beginning with the feed grown on the farm and ending with how manure is safely processed.

Beth Bergsten of Andover – who carried her sleeping grandchild along the tour – said that while she’s no stranger to farms, the tour gave her some new insights into dairy farming. “It was a nice tour, and some of this was new to me – it’s not stuff you hear about everyday ,” she said.

For example, Chesmer stressed the importance of what cows eat and noted that a nutritionist visits the farm once a week to monitor the animals’ wellbeing .

“You’re not really feeding the cow… What you’re feeding are the microbes in the rumen,” he said, referring to one of the four chambers that make up a cow’s stomach. (Contrary to popular belief, a cow doesn’t have four stomachs, but does have four sections – the rumen, reticulum , omasum and abomasums.)

He added that what a cow eats affects the quantity and taste of the milk produced.

Graywall Farm’s cows produce about 150 pounds of milk a day – and are milked four times a day.

Rather than being herded into the milking facility, the cows decide when they want to be milked. Since pressure builds up as they produce milk, they actually enjoy the relief of being milked, Chesmer said.

He also explained how cows are rotated between three barns, including one where cows are allowed to rest for two months. Without a resting period, “you will milk the meat off their backs,” Chesmer said.

There will be more opportunities to learn about dairy farming this summer as other Farmer’s Cow farms open their doors for tours including Hytone Farms in Coventry, from noon to 3 p.m. on July 11; Cushman Farms in Lebanon, from noon to 3 p.m. on Aug. 1 (this tour includes a corn roast); and Fort Hills Farms in Thompson, from 2 to 5 p.m., on Aug. 29 (including a mini-corn maze).

More information about The Farmer’s Cow is available at www.thefarmerscow .com.