Farmer seeks wife?

For my study at the EHVA I had to follow a class called agricultural biology or for us farming biology and we were only with 8 students. It was one of the best ones I ever had as it was really hands-on and I have always been interested in farming. People have this distance now from where food comes from and there are even children who think meat grows in plastic packaging.

For this class we also had a day at a farm but as we wanted to also milk cows we had to be up very early and as the farm was miles away (like halfway across the Netherlands) and at least a 3 hour journey for me we all decided to stay at the field research centrum our teacher has close to the farm. The weather was a staggering 30 degrees Celsius these 2 day and it was actually to hot to do anything! We had a fun evening with cheap red wine and off course went to bed way to late so the next morning we all had difficulty waking up. After breakfast we went to the farm in our new beautiful blue coveralls (protective clothing, boiler suits) which was way to hot in this weather.

At the farm we were split up into smaller groups and we all got a job of our own and after a while we would rotate with each other so everyone could do everything. I started with herding cows towards the milking carousel and watching cow behavior, After that we went to the young calves to feed them and clean up and after that it was our turns to milk. I had done it before but never with a carousel and it was funny to see these cows turn around you. As we were the last group to milk cows we also got to help to clean everything there too and had great fun with the water on such a hot day. We had breakfast when everyone was done and got real milk (without all the processes and 100% fat) and home made yoghurt which was really sweet. After that we watched as the cows went to the field and went with 3 people to herd the cows to the fields.

There were 3 new cows who were allowed to go to the field for the first time and still had to learn what to do. When we got to the fields two of the young cows jumped into the ditch and weren't able to pull themselves out. We warned the farmer and he went to pull them out. After he pulled one out and started with the next one the first one jumped back in so it took longer then expected. After that we herded the stragglers back to the group and put up the fens.

When we got back we got to help with administration and other small things on a farm like mending fences and cleaning up the haystack. When we were all done it was actually time to leave but as we were sitting in the shade the people from Artificial insemination come for 2 cows so we stayed to watch. After that we said goodbye to the farmers who had been so nice to us all day and went back to the research centrum to pack up and go home.

It was a great day and I hope this one class will stay at school

BTW: we got to keep those lovely blue coveralls