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Well, we did it! We all made it home! In some ways I was anxious to be home, but in most ways I didn’t want to leave, the midwest was extremely homey, and a comfortable place to be. Sure I couldn’t live a crazy busy life just touring agriculture with 17 other people each day, but I do think one of those places could very well be enjoyable for me!

As we departed I couldn’t help but think about what I want to do after college, where to go, who I’d know, what kind of job I want, or even in what field… I have decided that all I know is that I want to in some kind of livestock industry with some kind of health/science involved; this could be anywhere from a manager at a dairy to an AI technician, but after this tour I have seen so much more than I had ever opened my eyes to. That being said, I know why I enjoyed this tour; not a single person didn’t love their job, not a single person we talked to wasn’t content with their success, and not a single person didn’t work hard for the job they had and not a single one wasn’t proud of where they stood today. And that is why I love agriculture, I have seen that if you work hard, fight through the storms and keep your chin up there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.

I want to thank Matt for taking time out of his school year and summer to plan, and even more out of his personal life to make the trip happen and experience it with us. We all appreciate all that you’ve done and I know there couldn’t have been a better instructor for the course! Also a huge thank you to Hannah, for being such a great chaperone!

I am sad that the class is over but I really can’t wait to make it happen again! Look out for an update towards summer if I take on another tour! Thanks for listening!

Tuesday 15^th: Claas Combines, Union Pacific & Fly out!

First stop of the last day, Claas Combines! We arrived pretty early to meet with a marketing representative from Claas, who gave us a tour of the manufacturing plant. The best part of the tour was learning how the core parts of the machinery moved across the floor to each different station of manufacturing. We had to speed through the tour, but what we did see was amazing!

Lastly we went to Union Pacific, where we were presented to on all the different parts of agriculture tied to the railroads. It was very eye opening to see that without Union Pacific, we may not be as we are today, and that at one point every piece of agriculture was connected by the railway.

After Union Pacific we were off to the airport! After a long week filled with touring the midwest, it was time to return  home.

Monday 14^th: University of NE feedlot, campus & tractor testing Facility

Another great day in the books! We started our day off with a tour of the University of Nebraska beef feedlot. What an operation! The tour started with the first section of the lot, mostly just pens of animals that were being studied for research purposes. Next, we went to the rations yard, where the workers mixed all of the rations in a mixing truck, each with a scale to customize the ration for each pen. Our tour guide was the manager of the livestock portion of the operation, and he was a great tour guide, answering all of our questions and showing us as much as the operation as possible. It was awesome to be able to see their feeding set-up in working order; they were the same things that Purina used at their research facility. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the packing plant and slaughter portion of the feedlot, but it is something I would have liked to see! 

After touring the feedlot we drove to the college to tour their campus where we were greeted by all sorts of kind staff members and students. My favorite part of the campus tour was the animal science building, there were actually animals all over the building; from horses to fisculated beef and dairy cattle. After touring the main campus we walked over to their tractor testing facility, unfortunately we didn’t see any tractors get tested but we did get to see some very unique tractors from the past!

Lastly, we got a full tour of the football stadium and their facilities and actually got to walk on their field. This part of the tour was neat because we actually got to see where our old coach is now calling home, like they say, one persons penny is someone elses gold! Our tour guide for the stadium was very enthused to be there and really put forth some effort to make it as great and realistic as possible. stay tuned for more updates from just another woman in agriculture, as I tour the midwest! PS. tomorrowś the last day on tour!

Sunday 13^th: 4k Farms & Omaha Zoo

Today was a day for the books, and a day that I will probably remember for the rest of my life! Have you ever heard of the famous boar, “Hillbilly Bone”? Well, if you are into hogs then you’d surely know of him! Today we journeyed to Iowa just to see this pig, well the operation too! Owner and operator, Kurt gave us the grand tour of his whole operation! First we met the boars, which were huge! I had never seen a boar before but they were something spectacular, their body mass amounted more than mine, their tusks grew long with age, and their disposition was something of which I had not expected; these boars were very sweet, flashy, and well, fertile.
Kurt talked to us about Hillbilly Bone, his prize possession for quite some time informing us that one straw of his semen was worth about 500$! On average, it takes 2 straws of semen to bred a sow, so you could imagine how much this boar brings to the table! Kurt actually showed us how to service a boar, collect his semen, and get it ready for distribution.

After learning how to prepare the semen we took a trip up to the guilt pen where he was expecting a guilt in heat. Sure enough, there was! Kurt showed us how to breed a guilt, which was so very interesting, and extremely informative. We toured the rest of the farm, from young boars to newborn piglets. It was amazing how many animals he had in his operation, and even more amazing to hear the compassion in his voice when he talked about his animals, especially Hillbilly Bone, and his boar whom he named after his best friend. 

 

After a very thorough and enjoyable tour of the farm we were off to our next stop… the OMAHA ZOO! The zoo was a fun stop to make, however it was extremely hot, very spread out, and really easy to miss something! I had a great time seeing all the animals, and this trip really makes me want to go see the zoo when I get back home! 

Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for more updates from just another woman in agriculture via my blog and facebook!

 

Saturday, September 12th, 2015 – St.  Joe, Missouri

Howdy friends and family! What a trip so far! Today we started our day off relatively early to head out to the stop I looked forward to the most, and boy was it all that I had hoped for and more. I know, I know, you’re anxiously waiting for me to spill the beans! Shatto Milk Company was the name of the dairy farm we toured today, let me just say it was great! To start the tour off we were shown first the parlor, a double – six – herringbone parlor, much like the dairies I am most familiar with. Our tour guide walked us through the milking process which is much like ours however, I found it interesting that they actually use a sanitizer for the initial cleaning of the teat instead of a ‘pre’ iodine dip; the reason was because the sanitizer could actually clean 3x as fast as the ordinary post dip.. Ya learn somethin new every day!

Next on the tour, students were able to “hand milk” a cow if they wanted to, and interact with a few heifer calves. Most people got a kick out of this stop! It was very interesting to me that of all of the animals on the farm 95% were black and white Holsteins (some were red) and the remaining population were jersey crossbreds; this was extremely interesting to me as Oregon and California are starting to really turn towards the use of Jerseys as studies are showing they are more economical and more efficient. Maybe some day Missouri will catch up!

After touring the rest of the facility including the milk room it was obvious to me that Shatto was started out of pure love for the industry and I feel that it is still ran because of that very reason. We had the honor of meeting the manager of the farm, and the owner of the company which were both very kind men. To conclude the tour we were given samples of their products which included cheese curds (cajon, dill and regular), butter (honey, original and garlic) and a variety of their specialty milks: root beer, cotton candy, chocolate peanut butter, coffee, chocolate, banana, strawberry and cookies and cream! I have never tasted such yummy varieties of milk, however I still think that our local dairy, Bennett Family Farms may have them beat with their chocolate milk!

After touring the dairy we took off for Schweizer Orchards in St. Joe, MO. I had never been to a place like this: an apple orchard, pumpkin growing, christmas tree farm and kiddie maize. What a unique place! We were toured by the Co-Owner on a ‘tractor hay ride’ which no hay was involved in. According to our guide, due to liability with the farm they no longer used hay as it was too dangerous! It was very interesting to hear that the number one problem with the business was liability, but I believe it! The population is very sue-happy! I really enjoyed this tour because it was relaxed, fun and exciting to talk to such a passionate man that really spoke with honesty. We were hand picked the Missouri apple, the Jonathon and were encouraged to chuck it from the hay ride. What a great atmosphere and tour! 

On a random note, we learned that Christmas trees in Missouri aren’t naturally green…. they have a worker go through and actually spray them before the U-pick season! How crazy, but how brilliant!

Lastly, we toured around St. Joe, and came across the old Livestock Exchange building; what a neat place! Inside there were pictures of what St. Joe looked like before the building burnt down, and they actually had livestock all around the town! Buildings that surrounded it where actually once livestock holding pens, slaughter houses and meat packing plants! What a monument!

Stay tuned for more updates from just another woman in agriculture and my fellow 15 peers as we take on the Midwest! Oh, I almost forgot to mention, we technically were in Kansas today; we found a field nearest the Missouri/Kansas border where horses greeted us as we stepped foot on Kansas land.

Howdy! Day three here on the OSU Midwest Agriculture Tour, and we were up bright and early to travel to St. Joseph (Joe), MO to tour Triumph Foods, Green Dirt Sheep Dairy, and Monsanto Field Plots. Sounds like an eventful day huh?!

First stop on the list, TRIUMPH! Wowza, what a place! Triumph is a large scale slaughter and meat packing plant for swine. Touring this place was such an amazing opportunity and I have a feeling it will be the highlight of my trip. Now, as a student interested in animal sciences and management, the processing of market animals has always been one of my interests, at OSU I was allowed the opportunity to watch and assist in the processing of steers during the Steer-A-Year program this past year. As a high school student I also raised market hogs so I really had a good idea what the industry was like, but never before had I seen it on such a large scale.

I honestly had no idea what to expect at Triumph, but I was very eager to get the inside tour! First we met with our tour guide, who also was the number one employee left in the company, who was very passionate and willing to be guiding us through the company. After getting “all frocked out” as I like to call it; a hair net, hard hat, lab coat, and booties, we were off to start the tour! Windows down the main hallways were overlooking the factory floor, allowing us to see the workers on the line in each different part of the conveyor belt line ups. It was amazing to see how efficient and well the employees worked, and the entire 15-20 minutes we stood there we saw little to no laziness, negligence or mistakes which really is amazing considering the industry at hand.

We worked our way through packaging, box making, labeling, mailing, storing, marinating and the break room before we finally arrived at the start of the line. I really appreciated the fluidity of the process, cleanliness of the outfit, and the dedication to the task at hand. As we started from the holding pens and worked our way to the processing tables it was amazing to see each and every step in the process from euthinization to preparing for USDA certification.

Triumph foods was a really incredible place to tour, and I honestly would be ecstatic to do an internship or possibly a job with them. Unfortunately we were unable to take photos at this facility but the memories are worth it all.

After touring Triumph, we journeyed to a Sheep Dairy by the name of Green Dirt farm…. yep that’s right, a sheep dairy! This was one of the stops on our agenda that I really wasn’t too sure about, thinking to myself that sheep dairies are very unique, but also extremely strange. I tell you what, I went into it as open minded as I could! First we went out to the field to check out the flock.. yes, of sheep! And not only did we learn about the grazing sheep, we also learned a ton about herd pretecting dogs; honestly I had no idea that they were even a thing anymore, nor that they would be exceptional at their jobs. We were shown the milk/cheese room at the dairy, and unfortunately did not get to see it functioning, however we did get plenty of samples of Green Dirt’s products. It was extremely interesting to me that the parlor of a dairy sheep was almost identical to a diary cow parlor, just on a much smaller, modified scale. This was mind blowing to me that they had automatic milkers for such small animals!

So I’ve decided that the only kind of milk for me is milk from the cow… Boy was the cheese tasting a rude awakening for someone who is generally a picky eater. BUT I can live to see tomorrow AND tell you that I at least tried it! One thing I gathered from the tour is that the milk of a sheep takes very much like the milk of a goat! 

Lastly, we made the trip out to Monsanto’s corn and soybean field plots to learn a little more about the crops and what Monsanto does. It was amazing to learn that corn to be combined grows until it is mature, is self watering, and dries when it is ready to. What a crazy bunch of info huh? I really enjoyed being around the soybeans because it allowed me to really look at the difference between a GMO and a non GMO, fortunately, the only difference were the fact that one set of plants is darker, and has less damage by insects.

I really had a great day seeing things you wouldn’t really see on the PNW and am very fortunate to have had the opportunity. Stay tuned for more blog updates from just another woman in agriculture and thanks for listening!

Hello all! It’s been quite some time since we’ve chatted huh?! Whoopsies! Well anyways, time to play some catch up!

Wednesday, September 9th: Second day of touring; first stop Purina Nutrition Research Facility! What a sight to see! Initial thoughts of this tour was a little astray.. I really wasn’t sure what to expect because I was thinking Purina = dog & cat food, but little did I know, I was completely wrong! The staff of Purina greeted us very kindly upon our arrival with refreshments, a conference room just for us, and some party favors! I liked it already! Our main tour guide was Gretchen, a very sweet woman who loved to talk about what they do at the facility and really loved to educate! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take pictures at this facility, but I’ll try to tell you more about each stop!

We went to the horse center, where they have one of the nicest horse treadmills in the nation. The equine facility here was very dedicated to finding out exactly how to help the animals thrive from a nutritional standpoint. I really thought it was interesting that the facility does not ride their horses, only usually uses one breed for testing; quarter horses, and also have about 4 people at one time working with a single horse in the testing facility. The most unique part of the equine department was the murals on the walls, the main one was of a famous racehorse (Secretariat) and with it were descriptions as to how the horses body worked in comparison to a humans, this information showed that a horses heart can beat up to 108 beats per second and that the average horse heart is the size of a volleyball! Interesting huh!

As we toured the dairy facility at Purina we discovered that Land O Lakes is actually partnered with them! Purina companion animal foods are actually partnered with Nestle, and are two completely different facilities. While at the dairy we saw their parlor, which looked much like any other parlor, but also got to talk about the breeding they do there, and all about the process with calf crop and culling. In addition to the dairy facility we also toured one for beef! We saw their way of computer oriented feeding that really seemed to be beneficial in the line of livestock raising. It was amazing to see some of the innovative technology that the facilities had and were so proud to be using. I really think that Purina is a great research facility not only because of how they treat and care for their animals, but more so because 100% of the products and animals are harvested and processed!

Next: University of Missouri…. MIZZOU

Well, I never thought this day would come; the day I second guess my chosen school for college! From first thoughts of Mizzou I knew it had to be pretty cool because I heard there were GLOWING PIGS! YEP! GLOWING! Not only did I hear it, but boy you better believe WE SAW IT! I must inform you why they are glowing though, because our tour guide was very amendment about insuring we all knew the reason behind it, not just because we thought it was incredibly crazy! A researcher at Mizzou actually genetically selected for a gene in pigs that proves to be diabetes, and they wanted to be able to plant that specific gene into an animal to closely monitor the animal much like they would a human; after-all pigs are pretty similar to us! The gene is marked with a tracer (hence the glow in the dark) to insure that the pig received the gene and is a carrier. It was very interesting to learn that even though the genes are distributed in the womb, not every pig receives it, actually sometimes almost none do! I am really pleased with this research because it is really allowing us to see changes with the disease without harming anyone, after-all, it’s just adding an extra  gene for studying. *unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the pigs, but I will tell you that the only way to see the pig glow was with a special set of black light goggles, and the areas of the hooves, eyes and snouts were mostly effected and visible*

I really enjoyed the other parts of Mizzou that we toured, like the swine and beef facilities, their on campus ice cream shop (YEP they make it there!) and their rec facility! I’d have to say that University of Missouri is definitely the first school I would transfer to! (I mean who wouldn’t, they had 3 pools!)

 

So sorry to be updating so late in the game! This trip has been packed with lots of exciting things and places! Stay tuned for more blogging and photos from just another girl in agriculture, as we tour the Midwest and Agriculture throughout it! Thanks for listening!

Howdy! It’s day 2 of the tour, and man are we exhausted!! For a little insight, we have checked into our 2nd hotel, traveled to Colombia, MO and have spent hours driving today.

YESTERDAY: We started off the morning with some breakfast from a local diner just across the way, and quickly filed into “Doris” to head out to be the Ultimate Tourist in St. Louis.

First, we made our first stop at the Old Court House down town St. Louis and got a complete tour of the old courts room. This tour was so interesting because we got to actually understand why it was so unique thanks to our tour guide; the building was created to have a sound relayer in the middle of it so that the people all the way up (about 7 floors) could still hear the business going on. Throughout the whole courthouse was very patriotic and displayed the flag beautifully.

Soon after the courthouse tour we walked over to the famous Arch, excited & shaking in our boots to  get to the top! The trams for the arch were crazy!! They were the size of the diameter of a kitty pool with 5 seats in each one (they kind of looked like a toilet!). After cramming into our trams we worked our way to the top and got to see the views from the arch! Did you know that the arch is 630ft wide?! It was also created to be almost as wide as it is tall, and that is even crazier! We learned that like OSU, there is a building height limit, and that of St. Louis is no taller than the arch, boy was AT&T cutting it close! The picture of my blog home screen is an actual picture I took of the arch while on the Mississippi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After coming down from the arch we then went back under the arch to watch a historical movie about the building of the arch. Unfortunately, I fell asleep before the movie even started, dang! Moving right along, ALL ABOARD THE RIVERBOAT! This tour was long, but relaxing and filled with facts about the surrounding areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the riverboat tour it was time to move on from downtown and explore a little agriculture. Next stop, Monsanto Research Facility! We arrived at about 3:15 (after two of the 3 fans were lost on the freeway) and began touring from the main building. The facility was very clean and professional, and of this tour I had no idea what to expect due to my lack of knowledge about the company and what they did. After the tour was finished, I really developed appreciation for GMO’s because they have done so much for our communities and will continue to help our world continue to grow and flourish. Unfortunately, we were unable to take very many photos at Monsanto due to their high volume of patented machinery and mechanisms.

 

 

 

 

 

The technology at Monsanto was amazing, my favorite part was the rooms that were climate controls; these allowed you to mimic the weather of another location.

Monsanto was really great to visit because I have never seen such high tech and cutting edge technology, but now that I have I can say that I am very thankful for it! After the tour end, we loaded back up and left for the hotel. Surprise, surprise, we were starving! Half of the group split, going to Mexican on one side of town, and the Old Spaghetti Factory on the other. We stayed another night at the MAC, and had to get up at about 6 to be up and ready for the day!

I promise to catch you up to speed tomorrow once I am fully rested and hopefully fully acclimated to the time change! Stay tuned for more updates on our trip from just another woman in agriculture, and be sure to follow our hashtags on facebook, instagram and twitter! Please send me any messages you have! I would love to share!

Hi guys! I know, you probably really missed hearing from me yesterday huh?! Well, it was a very crazy day, and by the end of it I was way too tuckered out to do an entry! Let’s take a walk down memory lane so I can tell ya about the #15MWAGTOUR so far. (yes, that is the hashtag we are required to use!)

YESTERDAY: I woke up at about 9:00am (your time this would be 7:00) and was feeling way too lazy to get out of bed after a long, hot night in a random, cheap hotel room that I stayed in alone. Oh, can’t forget to mention what I had for dinner the night before, I went to the classiest place ever… STEAK N SHAKE, which actually sounded pretty good but I was actually really disappointed with it; I would give it another try, hoping it’s just the location and staff to blame. Anyways, after showering and getting ready at my random, no name, falling apart and way overpriced hotel, it was finally time to head to the airport to meet up with Tye! At about 11:30, after nearly missing my shuttle I finally made my way into the airport and found Tye at her baggage claim. We had about 4 1/2 hours to kill so we ate some, drank some, and even watched a movie! Yep, that’s right, we watched a movie in the airport..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few hours passed Tye and I decided to check the weather first on our phones, then outside..

 

 

 

At about 4:30pm we started to finally gather together and get things like the rental cars in check, and map out our hotel. I’d like to give Matt a round of applause for his efforts to upgrade from mini vans to SUV’s, but unfortunately, the University was not up for being so classy..

Last night we checked into our hotel (Missouri Athletic Club) that smells a whole lot like cigars, changed our clothes and left for the St. Louis Cardinals game! What an experience, not only am I in a different state but I don’t know the first thing about baseball! Luckily the game was something to cross off the bucket list, and understanding major league baseball wasn’t an academic requirement.

It’s pretty late and we have a lot of stuff ahead tomorrow, I’ll be posting reflections of the day before at the end of each day. Stay tuned for more updates from just another woman in agriculture via facebook, snapchat, instagram, and this blog as I tour the midwest!

 

Thanks for listening!

 

 

 

Howdy! Ready to hear about my trip so far?! Well I hope so cause I’m ready to spill the beans.. All the preparations started yesterday; which also was my 19th birthday, the designated day for me to hand out ribbons at the Oregon State Fair as the 2015 Oregon Jersey Queen (no, not New Jersey, Jersey like the brown dairy cow.. MOO!) and it also happened to be the day I had to arrange my living sitch for the school year to come.. yes I know, a little late in the game to figure it out; glad to say it’s over! After a long, hard, and tiring day with about 300 miles under my belt, finally I could fall asleep at about 1230, and be up in about 5 hours; I tell you what, that slumber was a quick one!

Still sleepy eyed, and feelin a lil groggy I jump out of bed and scramble for the lights, the excitement of packing up and hitting the road was pushing me to shake the tiredness and get on with the trip! After collecting the last of my things, packing up my last minute must haves, and body slamming my suitcase shut, I WAS READY! A huge thank you to my momma and sissy for taking me to the airport; such a brutal thing to do on a holiday!

As you may have seen in my last blog, I made it through security and to my gate very quickly and with no problems, so I bought a bottle of water to quench my blogging thirst, wow, you guys are lucky I like to entertain, cause that bottle of water was $5.50! I guess cheap dates are a thing of the past! A BIG bummer occurred about a minute before it was time to board the first plane to Seattle, WA… I had written a great entry, so full of excitement and so many thoughts, but knowing me, I’m prone to unfortunate events.. I DELETED IT! So that’s why I’m here now, to finish what I once started! I want you to know all about what we have planned for our trip! Keep in mind, today might be the longest amount of time I spend blogging, well because I have nothing better to do! Shortly I’ll be landed from my 3hr flight to St. Louis, and be off on my own for a whole 24 hours!! THAT’S RIGHT, NO PLANS, NO PEOPLE, JUST ME (in some strange state.. what to do what to do). Honestly, I don’t know where this blogging motivation came from, but my guess is the lovely, hour long, mouth breathing slumber I just had on the plane (don’t worry, I apologized to the ladies next to me for snoring..)

As I sit here writing, I would like to take a moment to thank the great individual who worked so hard at putting this trip together and really making it come to life! Matt Kennedy is my favorite instructor at Oregon State who teaches in the Animal and Rangeland Science Department, and thank god for that because some things I’m not sure I would be able to grasp without him! As of now, the tentative schedule for the trip is:

Tuesday Sept 8^th: Fly in and attend cardinals game; stay at Missouri Athletic Club

Wednesday  9^th: St Louis Arch, Riverboat Tour and Monsanto; stay at Missouri Athletic Club

Thursday 10^th: Purina Mills Research Farm, University of Missouri; Stay at Hampton Inn, Columbia MO

Friday 11^th: Triumph Foods, Green Dirt Farm, Lewis Seeds/Monsanto Field Plots; Stay at Hampton Inn, St Joe MO

Saturday 12^th: Shatto Dairy, Schweiver Orchards, Explore St joe/Kansas City; Stay at Hampton Inn, St Joe MO

Sunday 13^th: 4k Farms- Swine/soybeans/corn, Omaha Zoo; Stay at Hampton Inn, Omaha, NE

Monday 14^th: University of NE feedlot, campus, Tractor testing Facility; Stay at Hampton Inn, Omaha, NE

Tuesday 15^th: Claas Combines, Union Pacific; Fly out of Omaha

 

Are you as excited as I am?! Well guess what, one more exciting piece for you…. I BOUGHT A SELFIE STICK FOR THE TRIP!! hehehe shouldn’t that be interesting!

Stay tuned, and check back every day for more updates from just another woman in agriculture, follow the class on facebook, twitter, and instagram via the hashtag #15MWAGTOUR