Raven Harron

 Hello from Western Maryland!

Raven Herron

Hello from Western Maryland!

Exciting things have been happening over in Washington County! The last week has been educational, experiential, and extremely exciting! I would like to highlight some of the things I have been able to participate in under the supervision of Mr. Jeff Semler and Dr. Amanda Grev. The image above highlights me, taking notes, and a graduate student at the University of Maryland,  Niraj Suresh, taking measurements on a Jersey calf. We were finishing up some data collection on a study created by Dr. Fabiana De Freitas Cardoso and Jeff Semler with tracking of calves just over 70 days after birth. While I am not working with crunching the data, getting the hands-on experience of moving the claves, taking measurements, and recording data for real research purposes is so fulfilling.

The next image, above, is of a large 900+ head dairy farm with a newly built rotary parlor. This farm

had an open house to show all of the community members their advancement of milking technology

and explain all the benefits. Their milking time was taken from 22 hours down to 16, they have the

capability to grow to 1,050 head, and being able to learn about the history of the farm and the changes

in the industry over time was revolutionary to me. One of the most memorable experiences from that

day was being able to walk in, around, and through the massive dairy barns, pictured below. It was

something I will never forget.

Following visiting a rotary parlor, I was able to see the milking operations of Misty Meadows Farm

Creamery. Jenny, the owner, was one of the loveliest people I have ever met in the industry and is

overflowing with knowledge and love for her job - she made me even consider it for a split second! In

an industry like agriculture, we should all strive to communicate the way Jenny does, with excitement,

passion, and good knowledge to pass on to others. My next visit to them will be to try their ice cream

run by Jenny’s parents, raspberry to be exact!

Lastly, I was able to meet two of my other interns, Andrea and Solomon during the weighing process of

the experimental animals here at WMREC. This was a great bonding and get-to-know-you experience

while also being a hands-on learning process for everyone. In this instance, trying to run 45 animals

through a scale and evaluate their health required the utmost diligence of good communication. The

movement of animals, the closing of doors, and all while getting to know each other was a great way to

learn to communicate well.