As much as Bowling Green has embraced urbanization and industrial development is, it also has stayed true to its agricultural roots.

Farming has always been the backbone of this community, but it has had to adapt to the times.

There's no better example of this than Chinese Dairy Barn.

Our Kelsey Starks went on the road to bring us their story of a pivot that's paying off.

This dairy farm has been in the same location on 31 W since the 1880s.

It's one of the oldest dairy farms in the entire state.

But it wasn't always the tourist attraction that it is today.

The fourth generation of the Chaney family had a new vision for the future of this dairy farm, and today it's paying off.

We've been here for about 135 years.

Our family have.

So we're very, very fortunate in that Carl Chaney's father, James, started milking two cows by hand on this farm in 1940.

Today, there are about 60 cows living on this 40 acre farm, and they're all milked by a robot.

We have seen a 20 to 25% increase in milk production because of the robot.

As the Chinese watched other dairy farms closing across the state, increasing production was just one part of the equation to keep the family farm in business.

2000 there were 2100 dairy farms here in the state.

We just dropped below 352 going out of business because they struggle to make a living.

And so we've been able to keep it going, mainly with a lot of help from tourism.

They decided to capitalize on agritourism and invite people to come watch how their product is made.

They expanded into bottled milk, chocolate milk and now what they are most famous for is their rich high butterfat ice cream.

All vanilla, whereas the vanilla.

In 2003, we felt like we needed to do something to try to figure out how we were going to keep the farm in the family.

And that's when we built the ice cream store.

That's when Chaney's dairy barn came to be.

We think it's important that consumers have a place to go to actually see how their food is produced.

So you can come you can see the cows, you can see the milk going into the jug, knowing that.

Then all of that is put together with more cream, added nonfat dry milk and sugar, pasteurized, homogenized, brought up to the dairy barn.

And then they can actually see the ice cream being made.

I don't think there's anywhere else in the state of Kentucky that does that.

Now their milk is sold all over the state and outside Kentucky, too.

Right now, our cows are producing about 25,000 pounds of milk a week.

And then there's probably a 4 to 5 state area where our milk goes.

It's mainly food service restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries.

That's usually where our milk goes.

But a lot of the milk stays right here for their award winning ice cream.

Next.

People still wanted to know.

Do you really make the ice cream here?

Do you buy it?

I'm like, we make every single bit of it right here.

And so this way that everybody can see.

Now what?

Let's go see what she's making.

How much she got.

And so what she's making is that track cow tracks.

Cow tracks is a vanilla based ice cream with Snickers and caramel, and it's been one of them that we've been making for like, forever.

Brie is going to start pulling the ice cream.

The ice cream will come out of the machine at about 23 degrees.

It's kind of like a soft serve.

And then Brie is going to take the ice cream.

She's going to add the Snickers in it and the caramel, and then we're going to take it and put it in our blast freezer.

That's another one of our secrets.

Since their pivot, the Chinese had to expand their small barn store to make room for the lines at the ice cream bar, eating area, and gift shop.

They added a restaurant and playground and started hosting more events like summer movie nights with a big screen outside.

Now, Chinese Dairy Barn attracts visitors from around the world.

Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Florida, Florida, Ohio, Washington, D.C.. Franklin, Kentucky.

Kentucky.

Tennessee.

Now look at this.

Now, I ain't lying about this.

We just looked at it.

Look at that.

What does that say right there?

Paris, France.

Those visitors not only get to see the inner workings of a real dairy farm, they're learning the science behind it with the latest technology.

With the robot.

Every cow has a collar around her neck.

And the collar is what identifies her to the robot.

So now this cow has walked in the robot.

It's washed her, and now it's put the milkers on her.

And now, as you can see, the milk starting to come, from the cow.

Now, because of the collar.

We've got all this information on her so far.

She's been in the robot a minute and 13 seconds.

She's going to get 2.4 pounds of feed.

So far, she's got 1.9.

The robot expects her to give 15.9 pounds of milk.

This milking so far, she's at 5.5.

It may be a new way of farming, but it is still rooted in the deep tradition that began here more than a century ago.

Inside Cheney's Dairy Barn for Kentucky Edition, I'm Kelsey Starks.

Thank you so much, Kelsey.

Tough assignment.

You can find Chinese Dairy Barn's famous ice cream at the Kentucky State Fair.

They cranked out 2900 gallons of ice cream in the past two weeks to prepare for the high demand at the state fair, which kicks off tomorrow at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville and runs through August 21st 24th, that is.