The Aspects of Agriculture from another Land Grant University

For the past three years now (and that’s hard to believe), I’ve attended every Block and Bridle National Convention since I was a freshman, and even coordinated the trip last year to the host school, University of Kentucky. This year, the National Convention was hosted by Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan.

Block and Bridle National Conventions usually begin on a Thursday evening, and conclude on Saturday nights. We arrived in Lansing, where the nine members of our club got to listen to a national lobbyist who specializes in agricultural affairs. 

Nine Members of the Penn State Block and Bridle Club in Lansing, MI

The following day was dedicated to tours across the state of Michigan, showcasing how the different styles of agricultural practices have led to the successes in that state. At the first stop on our tour, we visited the Swiss Lane Dairy Farm in Alto, Michigan. Originally a 91-acre tract, this establishment of fourth-generation dairy farmers has grown to thousands of acres. One thing that makes this farm special is that all of the workers and family members of this 1,300-head dairy partake in a program called “Dairy Discovery”. Dairy Discovery is a program designed to bring the youth onto the farm to learn what a farm really is. This is a great way to bridge the generational divide and teach people where their food comes from. During this special tour of the farm, the kids get to help bottle-feed the newborn calves, take a hayride with the big green John Deere tractors, and learn about the nutritional importance that milk provides. (Side note: sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were taken with my phone!)

A view of the double-16 milking parlor at Swiss Lane Dairy

After a day of jam-packed tours across Michigan, we spent Saturday morning in professional development events, during which the Penn State Chapter was even recognized for our efforts with Meat-In Day. After the keynote speech, the club took a short drive to the Michigan Great Lakes International Draft Horse Show and Pull, the largest draft horse show in North America. After viewing some of classes these elegant draft horses, the club members went on a tour of the MSU farm facilities. One of the more interesting things about the farm units is that the poultry facility is raising a flock of emus, and even has minks! The poultry farm actually had issues with animal rights groups a few years ago because of raising the minks at the facility. 

Emus at the MSU Poultry facility

One of the final stops along the “barn tour” was the MSU Beef Barns. This historic facility has been known for producing some of the best Hereford and Angus beef cattle in the nation, and hosts the MSU Block and Bridle Club calf sale, similar to the PSU Club Calf Sale (which was occurring the exact same weekend back in Happy Valley as this convention). The original MSU Beef Barns used to be located right on campus; however, as MSU expanded, the Beef Barns were forced to move off campus. Instead of tearing the entire farm facility down, the barn was cut in three different sections and transported on pallets right down the road to its current location today.

MSU Beef Barn

Finally, after another packed day of touring agricultural facilities, it was time for the awards banquet. From all of the years I’ve attended national conventions, I’ve noticed that Penn State always does well competing for various awards given out amongst the other chapters across the nation. With this convention, nothing changed from the past; Penn State rose to the top again! In all, the club received 3^rd place Scrapbook, 2^nd place Yearbook, 1^st place Webpage, and 1^st place Chapter Activities (for the second year in a row)! The awards were certainly well-deserved by the hardworking members of the club.

Club attendees after awards banquet

Looking back, it certainly was worth the long drive to Michigan, experiencing the different types of agriculture from Pennsylvania’s, and witnessing the fruits of our labor with the club excelling in our awards!

Experiences of Studying Abroad in Peru - Part Two

This is the second part of my blog about my study abroad experience in Peru. If you didn’t catch the first one, make sure to read through it, there is plenty of exciting information in that one!

After our visit to Machu Picchu, we only spent a few more days in Cusco. We were finishing up our final exams, but we were also looking forward to another wonderful excursion in Peru. Prior to our end in Cusco, we traveled to Puerto Maldonado, which is situated in the Amazon Basin, very close to the border of Brazil.

We flew to the town, which has a little runway, situated in the middle of nowhere. I was a bit nervous when we landed; I was wondering to myself whether or not our plane would fit on the tarmac! As soon as the crew opened the door of the plane, I could feel the instant surge of heat and humidity in the plane. From then on, we were in constant high humidity, and our clothes were damp the whole trip.

After our arrival, we then took a two-hour boat ride up the Tambopata River to a lodge. The Tambopata is one of the main tributaries to the Amazon River, the largest river in the world. We arrived at the Tambopata EcoLodge and discovered there was no electricity, and we had to sleep underneath bug nets. We saw all kinds of wildlife; monkeys, macaws, tarantulas, caimans (South American alligators), snakes of all sorts, and even piranhas!

The view from our lodge looking down the Tambopata River at 6 am

A family of Capybaras, the largest rodents in the world!

After I ended my study abroad experience in Peru, I decided to travel to the southern coast of Ecuador to visit some family members of mine who currently live there. My second cousin is a retired engineer and now does missionary work in Ecuador. I flew from Cusco to Guayaquil, Ecuador, the most populated city in the country. We stayed in Guayaquil for a few days, and toured around the city. After spending a few days there, we traveled to my cousin’s house on the Pacific Coast, in a little town called Ballenita, translated to “Little Whale”, which is where Humpback whales travel to each year to give birth to their calves. I even had the opportunity to go whale watching, in which we saw at least 30 whales during the few hours we were on the water! We only did a little bit of travelling after that, in which we went north to a town called Montañita (Little Mountain). Each year, they have world class surfing competitions, in which some of the biggest stars in surfboarding travel there each year to participate. Here are some of the photos of my short travel in Ecuador.

A photo of me on the coast at Ballenita

Small town of Puerto Lopez – some of the prettiest water I’ve ever seen!

Looking back, I had an incredible experience in Peru and Ecuador. If you have ever thought of studying abroad, I would highly recommend it, it certainly was a very enjoyable experience!

Experiences of studying abroad in Peru - Part One

I always wanted to study abroad somewhere (probably a Spanish-speaking country since I’m working to obtain my Spanish minor here at Penn State), but I never knew exactly where I wanted to go. After researching various places, I settled on Peru. I was already too attached to Penn State, so I decided to study during the summer, and I had an absolute blast. During my time in Peru, we visited many different places across the country. Peru is known for being one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world, in which one can experience deserts, jungles, snow-capped mountain ranges, and highland pastures all within short travels of each other.

My home city was Cusco, Peru, which is situated about 11,000 feet above sea level. Within an hour of arriving to the city, I began to experience altitude sickness. I struggled to catch every breath, and it was a task just to walk up a flight of stairs. My host mother, who did not speak a word of English, gave me herbal tea as soon as I arrived to help reduce the effects of the sickness, which helped a little bit.

While in Peru, I took two classes; Spanish language and the History of the Incan Civilization. Though I did not take any agricultural classes in Peru, I certainly took advantage of looking at the different ways food is produced in the country compared to United States agriculture. Peru is known for their wool and potato production, in which there are over 4,000 different varieties of potatoes in the country.

One of the most interesting areas of agricultural that we were exposed to was an alpaca farm. There, they harvested the wool from alpacas, llamas and vicuñas (wild alpacas). The main focus of the alpaca farm was to keep the Incan heritage within the products they created. The main focus of the farm was sustainability; the farm used all-natural dyes, in which they grew all of the products used in the different dyes. After creating the dye, the farm would hand-spin, and weave the different products for sale.

Feeding an alpaca in the Sacred Valley

Boiling an all-natural dye at the alpaca farm

Hand weaving at alpaca farm in the Sacred Valley

Peruvian woman spinning wool and tending to her flock

Peru is mostly known as being part of the extensive Incan Empire. Cusco was the capital city of the Empire until the Spanish conquered the city in the 1530’s. We spent a lot of time traveling and visiting parts of the Ancient Empire. One of the main highlights of the trip was when we visited Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is located in the cloud forests of Peru, virtually an unknown area to the Western world until 1916, when it was discovered by Hiram Bingham.

A photo of me standing in front of Machu Picchu

I certainly had a wonderful time during my stay in Cusco, Peru. I gained so much knowledge about the Incan civilization, and it truly fascinates me how advanced the civilization was, in which Machu Picchu was named one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World.

Interning With Pennsylvania Farm Bureau

This past summer was great -- I interned with the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

PFB represents more than 50,000 farm members across the commonwealth, and has been recognized as one of the most influential lobbying firms in the state. I was the Governmental Affairs and Communications intern, so I got to see the day-to-day workings of what an agricultural organization does to promote the largest industry in Pennsylvania.

I wrote research policy development articles as well as articles for farm members to help them understand the commodities that they produce. I truly appreciate how the staff involved me with all aspects of the agricultural industry. I was able to attend meetings on dog law, animal welfare and dairy pricing.

The highlight of my summer was when the National Affairs Lobbyist and I spent a few days in Washington, D.C., where we visited with the Congressional Representatives and Senators from Pennsylvania. Our main goal was to meet with them and talk about the differences between two bills in the House and Senate, both dealing with the Clean-Up and Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.

Much of Pennsylvania lies within the bay's watershed, so the information that we relayed to the elect officials was very pertinent to their congressional areas. Later, I got to tour the American Farm Bureau Federation’s headquarters.

During the summer, I also had the ability to help lead the FACE 2010 Conference – a youth conference held at Bucknell University for high school students to participate in a mock House of Representatives, strictly dealing with agricultural issues. It was great to see all the fresh ideas coming out of the student’s minds. Even though I still may be young in my agricultural career, it is nice to see that we have these young faces that are just as invigorated about promoting agriculture as I am.