Organic cows run towards open fields after a winter spent in the cowshed in Denmark

Denmark is facing a chilly spring. But as the seasons change, the country’s organic dairy cows are being ushered onto green pastures for springtime grazing. Organic Day is an annual event that warms hearts across the Scandinavian nation and has even become a popular family outing for urban residents. In April, organic farmers free their cows from barns and stables where they’ve spent the cold, dark winter. “They've been inside all winter and now, we're really looking forward to letting them out on the fresh green grass, and they'll spend the summer out there grazing,” says farmer Morten Schultz. Schultz owns around a hundred dairy cows and has been farming organically since 2006. He’s been staging Organic Day events at his Tranegaard Farm, 50 kilometers north of Copenhagen, for three years. Six thousand attended last year’s gathering, and around 3,000 were expected this year. Danes often say they’re going to “see the cows dance.” Amid loud cheers, the cows run, jump—perhaps even “dance”—their way onto green pastures. "The moment they get out on the grass, and they feel the grass under their toes, they will make these fun movements and we call it dancing,” smiles Schultz. "I think it's the energy you have,” says Leif Friis Jorgensen, director of Danish organic dairy, Nature Milk. “It's a little bit, you can feel it yourself. If you start up in the morning, and you see the sun, and you jump out to it, and it's exactly the same the cows are doing." The first Danish Organic Day was held in 2005 with around 10,000 visitors. Since then, organizers of Organic Day in Denmark say more than two million Danes have visited farms to watch the annual cow release. “A lot of us now living in the big cities, and we are not so close to our food as we would love to be,” says Jorgensen. This article was provided by The Associated Press.