Friday, August 10, 2007

I had a lot of time to think this week, sitting in the tractor, and spent most of it musing about farming. I even wrote some of it down:

Farming agrees with me. The combination of familiar routing and never quite knowing what each day will bring gives a comfortable stability and consistency that are never really boring. I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to run a farm, and in the process, learned a fair amount about myself. I like working outside. I love animals. I like working with people and the sense of accomplishment you get from cooperating to get a job done. I like the self-sufficiency of growing crops to feed our cows, and using our cows’ manure to feed our crops. I like how we strive everyday so our cows can do their job (making milk) better and easier. I like country music, especially now that I’ve experienced more of what the songs are about. These are experiences that are unique, yet I share them with countless people across the country and throughout the world, people who make it their business, their life’s work, to put food on the table for the rest of us. I like the way farming grows kids up and gives them a sense of purpose and direction. Never was I more sure of this than listening to two guys not any older than I am discussing how much fertilizer goes on their fields. I like the risk and the gamble of betting your life on Mother Nature’s whims. Maybe I am only fascinated by this aspect of farming because I’ve never experienced the loss it can produce, but farming wouldn’t be the same if, at the very bottom of it all, the ability to coax more corn out of the ground and more milk out of the cows didn’t matter.

As I enter my last week here, I am amazed by how fast the summer has gone by. Even with the corn as a very visual indicator of passing time, it doesn't seem possible that 3 whole months have passed. I am eager to get home and especially back to Chestertown, to my friends, professors, and eventually, my thesis, which I am proud to say has a topic that was inspired by my experiences here. Briefly, when our cows come down with mastitis, we have a range of antiobiotics available to treat them. Organic farms do not have this luxury, and thus concentrate their efforts on prevention. I want to compare the treatment and prevention of mastitis on conventional and organic dairy farms, and hopefully also compare which pathogens are present on the two different farms. Wanda invited me to conduct some of my research here at Miner, so I will be returning some time after Christmas to ride along with Dr. Henderson so I can interview some of his other clients.

It has certainly been a fabulous summer, and I am already looking forward to returning.

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