Week Nine with Extension by Cheyenne Van Echo

Calf

This week I attended the weekly connection, put up new fencing and helped move animals into different pastures at WMREC, weighed jersey calves, entered study data into the computer and attended the 2023 Commodity Classic. The Commodity Classic was a fun opportunity to reconnect with people I met earlier through this internship as well as introduce myself to some new faces. I really enjoyed listening to the conversation in the deer summit follow up. Hearing Maryland farmers advocate for themselves is very empowering! I also enjoyed speaking with the researchers and companies throughout the day. There were alot of companies present that I had never heard of and all the representatives were kind and approachable as they explained their mission and relation to the agricultural industry.

Deer Summit

In our weekly connection we heard from Steve Darcy from the PG County Soil Conservation District. He explained that future agricultural professionals will need to feed a projected 9 billion people. I am inspired to contribute to this challenge by improving animal health and serving livestock producers. I am currently applying to veterinary schools and believe that my talents would best serve the agricultural industry by treating livestock and working with producers to maintain a healthy population of food producing animals.

Frontal Grazing

Steve mentioned frontal grazing as a way to conserve carbon in the soil. We use a frontal grazing system in the perennial pastures at WMREC, so I found this to be a good connection between his presentation and the work my mentors are doing in one of their studies.

Cows in pasture