Farm interns depart at summer's end

As summer comes to an end, so does my internship. I have learned many valuable skills from the employees here at the Hoard’s Dairyman Farm, including learning to treat sick cows from Megan Lundy and learning how to scrape and milk in the tie stall barn from Brandon Schleif. Jake Agnew showed me how to run buttons for releasing cows and letting cows into the parlor, and Stephanie Ayoub showed me how to feed baby calves here at the farm. I have learned many new skills that I would like to implement on my family’s dairy.

The second half of my internship has been full of activities. I helped picture cows for advertising, mated cows, and went on a five-hour road trip to pick up semen and visit the beautiful Rolling Hills Prairie Dairy where the Walter family milks 200 Guernsey cows. I have also been involved with a research project to determine the heat stress exposure in the free stall barn. We finally started this project and placed intervaginal temperature recorders mounted on CIDRs in the cows. We will also be looking at the effects of sprinklers in the holding pen as well as exit lane sprinklers on the cow’s body temperature. Time is evaluated to see how long the cow is in the holding pen until she exits the parlor and water use is monitored for the sprinkler system.