Woah! Can you believe that summer 2015 is coming to an end?! I surely can! After working countless hours a week between three jobs, nearing the end of the countdown for the 2015 OSU Midwest Ag Tour couldn’t be any more exciting!
In this blog I am going to write about my hopes, experiences, questions and or comments, and memories from the tour; but first I should tell you all about it!
As the end of my freshman year started approaching things like finals, deadlines, club commitments, meetings and put-off coffee dates began to pile up and my schedule grew more and more unorganized. It was a Thursday afternoon when I received an email from one of my favorite instructors, Matthew Kennedy regarding a Steer-A-Year meeting scheduled for that evening (usually they were on tuesday’s so I was a bit confused). I went to the room described in the email at the time necessary thinking I was walking into a SAY officer meeting; little did I know, it was something better!
After about 5 minutes of listening to Matt, I finally realized that I wasn’t in the right place at the right time, and that the email must have been a mistake but boy was I glad to be there! I had never heard of the industry tour that Matt had been working on with such effort, but once I heard what an awesome program it was I couldn’t help but be one of the first to commit! I could see it then, discovering the Midwest! For those of you who don’t know me I am a small town girl who hasn’t been out of Oregon much, and haven’t really seen much of agriculture besides a dairy farm. All the talk about soybeans, corn, breweries, and other crop growers and industries really interested me, so that’s where you’ll find me today; counting down the minutes until I can leave for the airport!
As I said before, this summer has been a busy one, but not just for me! I have been anxiously waiting for the trip details to come together (but so has every single family member of mine- close and distant due to my ability to gab) and I couldn’t be more pleased with the choices of tours!
** 12 hours later ** I just realized my flight was booked for the wrong day, holy cow what a mess! About 400$ later, a sleepless night, and a very stressful flight change, I’m on the right track to leave for St. Louis in 3 days! Back to the tour…
I am really looking forward to seeing how agriculture works outside of Oregon and I have high hopes of seeing a variety of operations! I am most familiar with livestock operations so seeing the other side of the food chain will be a huge eye opener! I am most excited to visit Purina Mills and check out their operation!
I hope to blog every day while on the trip, so check back in for updates and pictures!
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