The UD Farm Experience

Before coming to the University of Delaware one of the major things I have always heard about was the farm on campus, so I was beyond thrilled to get to see it on my tour before I chose this school. In not being able to see it while on tour I briefly rode by it while I was leaving, but I had no idea I had only seen 5% of what it had to offer. In having the ability to ride through and walk across the farm may seem like something simple to most students in the agriculture field, but it was something brand new and eye opening to me. In getting to walk through each building and see each different department was something I never thought I would get to see the ins and outs of. In going to the dairy part of the farm first, I was extremely honored and proud of how clean and organized everything was, and I experienced this in each new section of the farm. Every pasture or barn was neatly cleaned and cared for and exemplified how much the people in this field care about what they do. Getting to learn about the body language of the holstein cattle, how horses can stop their own contractions if they feel threatened, and the bellows of the beef cattle when being weaned away from their young were all new eye opening facts I otherwise wouldn’t have known about. My favorite part of the tour however, was getting to see all of the sheep. Growing up around the livestock industry in Delaware, I was more custom to seeing horses and cows, but sheep was a new territory. Learning about the rules put in place to allow sheep to give birth on their own and the process of selecting the best ones to keep and breed on the farm was something brand new to me, and I really enjoyed being in that environment. Overall, this was my most influential field trip because it hit the closest to home, not to mention the amazing UDairy ice cream and the wonderful fiddle entertainment by my fellow classmate Max afterwards, I was really impressed!

 

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