When I was growing up, I always knew I wanted to farm. I couldn’t really imagine doing anything else to be honest. Even though I knew I wanted to farm, my dad was adamant about me working for someone else for a while.
After college and before I returned to the farm full-time, I worked for about five years as a dairy nutritionist. A nutritionist’s job is to help balance the cows’ diets so that we know they’re meeting their nutritional requirements. The nutritionist also helps the farmers stay up-to-date with market changes in feed price. This way, the farmers know that the cows’ nutritional needs are met, and they’re doing what’s best economically for the farm.
When I was a nutritionist, I really enjoyed working with farmers and meeting with other people. Being a nutritionist was great because I spent the days looking at cattle and helping people better the performance of their herd. Being able to help farmers with their bottom line and livelihood has a certain satisfaction and is really rewarding. Sometimes I would work with a farm that was struggling with their cows – production was down, or their reproduction program had some issues – and being able to help them through those challenges with their cattle nutrition was really satisfying.
After being a nutritionist for about five years, I decided to return back to the family farm. In the mid to late 90’s everyone was leaving the farm and not coming back, and I did the opposite. The modernization of farms in Wisconsin was happening; it was a really exciting time in the industry.
Eighteen years later, I’m still here. I’m really glad I have the nutrition background, because I can have great conversations with our nutritionist. Even though I have that experience, we still need a nutritionist on the farm. There are so many changes in technology, there is new research and informational seminars. If you’re not doing it every day, you might miss something important. We need an expert on the farm, and I’m not an expert anymore.
My dad was right – there was a definite benefit to getting off the farm and working for others and learning something new. But for me, there is no place like home.
A lot of science goes into making the cows’ ration, and we need experts to help us find the perfect balance.