Go Green!

Today Professor Miriam Weber Nielsen from Michigan State University brought her Introductory Dairy Cattle Management class to our farm.

They make a yearly visit, and every year the students are always engaged and interested.  Great conversations!

Kris and I talked about our farm, and the students had specific questions - different than what people not involved in agriculture ask - like what pasture grass we grow, if the calves ever suck on each other, what specific feed we use, the benefits of pasture, about growing our own feed, what kind of illnesses the calves get, how we work with natural bull breeding, etc.

They all have different interests too - one student came from a 50-cow dairy farm, and she wants to be involved in cow care.  Another came from a farm but wanted to learn all about cropping, because it's new to him.  Another wanted to work somewhere like the MSU extension office.

Miriam also mentioned to the students that part of the reason she brings a class to our farm is because Kris and I are good communicators.  All that talking I did through all my college classes is finally seen as a positive, instead of a negative!  If you wait long enough ...

Thanks again to Dr. Weber Nielsen and our beloved MSU!  If you ever need us to take this bus to football games, we're in.

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MSU tour

On Friday, we hosted another MSU tour!  For a few years, Dr. Miriam Weber Nielsen has brought her animal science classes for a tour.

This tour is always fun, because the students have a ton of detailed questions.  Many of them are from farms, and many of them were wearing shirts from farms where they currently work.  

In this group, not only did they have great questions, but about ten of them stayed after to talk with Kris to get even more specific answers.   

Once I looked up while I was talking and saw one of the students had a cat on his head.  The cats were all getting lots of attention.  Who knew cats would be even more popular than calves?  ...Other than YouTube.

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Field trip

Michigan State University students came here on a field trip today! 

Dr. Miriam Weber Nielsen brought 50 animal science students out to our farm.  She told us that the students ranged from people who came from their own farms and plan to go back, to people who've never been on a farm until today.

They visited a large dairy down the road to see their setup.  Then they came here to talk about pasturing, seasonal calving, and the transitional barn.  Kris had a good time talking to them, and of course we welcome people anytime.

A field trip literally in a field.