When I first heard I was accepted into Agricultural Governor’s school, I was a little nervous, and rightfully so. I had never been interested in agriculture or farming, so I didn’t know what I was getting into. The truth is, I’ve never even seen a cow up close before. Until now. When we first got to Kentland Farm, my group was looking at the fields first, which wasn’t that exciting to me.

My real goal of the entire month-long trip was touching a cow. The first time I touched a real live cow, I was shocked. Especially when one of the calves started licking my hand, and I found out the hard way that cows have extremely rough tongues. The calves were basically like giant dogs. The adult cows, on the other hand, were a little less friendly. That didn’t stop me from trying to pet them though!  My goal was complete, and I had felt satisfied in life.

Seeing the production of milk was just as exciting as the cows, in all honesty. Whenever I had imagined milk farms, I always imagined some old farmer in overalls sitting on a stool and manually hand milking the cows.  I never even imagined anything different, so when I saw all the machinery and technology that goes into it, I was blown away. As somebody who is very interested in engineering, it opened my eyes up to a whole new level of integrating agriculture and engineering. 

-jd