Final Reflections
November 2024

I can honestly say I feel like a different person than I was 8 months ago. I never would have expected that moving to Brusett, Montana to work at Couter Family Ranch (CFR) would change my life so profoundly. My first night was spent in tears, thinking I’d made a mistake coming here, and my last night will likely be spent in tears, sad to see this chapter come to an end. 

I’ve done several other apprenticeships and internships since I started to pursue a career in agriculture almost 10 years ago. One of which also required me to move and live on site at the farm for almost a year. So, I came into this program feeling like I had a solid idea of what was to come. My expectations were far exceeded. While the New Agrarian Program provides a variety of supplemental education opportunities throughout the apprenticeship, I found the hands-on learning through day to day work to be most effective. Because NAP is so immersive, I got a very honest taste of the ranch lifestyle and started to feel like a part of this place. Sometimes I could even forget it was a temporary position. The rhythm of living and working here allowed me to settle in so deeply that it feels like I’ve been here far longer. I could be from eastern Montana! 

I have learned more than I would have thought possible back in March. I am leaving with new skills and knowledge thanks to the instruction and patience of my mentor, as well as numerous mistakes on my part. However, I would have to say that my personal growth and greater sense of confidence have hands down been the most impactful aspects of this program. Living and working here the past 8 months has shifted my values; most notably, my view of people who are different from me, my desire to prioritize relationships conducive to growth, and my ideas of community. I had not considered these as a possible benefits of this experience, but with all the distractions of urban life stripped away, I have the clearest picture of what is important to me. I have had the opportunity to be truly alone with myself, directing much more energy toward myself than I ever have before. I think I am a better person for it. 

Even more unexpected is my skyrocketing confidence. I’ve always felt like a very confident person, not paying mind to what others think and trusting myself. At the end of this apprenticeship though, I truly feel like I can do anything. I think I can attribute this in part to living out in the country, which requires a heavy dose of self-sufficiency. If you need something, you make it. If there’s a job you don’t know how to do, you watch a youtube video. If you forgot a tool back at home, you improvise. Basically, the lack of easily accessible services and resources out here forces you to learn how to do a lot of things on your own. This part of rural culture has shown me that I am capable of figuring out how to do any project. I will also credit this next-level confidence to the sense of accomplishment I feel from moving to a small community in a new state all on my own. I’m so proud that I took the risk, completed this program, and feel as though I thrived here. Finally, what has me feeling more capable than ever are the copious ranch skills I have gained. Not only did I realize that I could do anything I set out to, but I already have. I’ve learned how to do everything that I have needed to or wanted to since moving here, often well enough to complete tasks and projects on my own. I have surprised myself with anything from herding up livestock that got out, to building fence, to changing a tire. The list could go on forever and I still feel amazed by that.

When it comes to ideas regarding my personal and professional future, the apprenticeship has provided me with a lot of clarity. I have had many realizations that will help get me closer to my dreams for life and business. I found it interesting that the things I disfavored about my work and life in Brusett were just as valuable to me as the things I favored most. The challenges I faced may have actually been more important because I would not have known the truth of my opinion about such things without a real opportunity to try them out. For instance, I now know that the proximity of an airport is something to consider when choosing where to move next. It was challenging to have the visitors I so badly wanted. I also seriously had not expected to encounter much loneliness, as I am a big home body and love to be alone. I did get lonely though, which helped me to see that I need to live close enough to friends to see them in person now and then. Or maybe I need to put more effort into establishing a community of peers wherever I move. An insight about my professional goals was that I now know being part of a direct marketing program is important to me. I feel a great sense of pride in the work we do and the product we produce, so I really want to share that with people and connect to the community that I am feeding. 

I also learned plenty about my future goals from the countless things I loved about my experience in Brusett. One of the things I enjoyed most was living rurally. It has been such a dream come true that I am pretty certain city life has lost its charm. I found a sense of peace and freedom in all the open space. The simple, slow pace of life has come easily to me and even felt indulgent at times. While I still don’t know where the next move will take me, I will work to maintain the quality of my lifestyle in Brusett. Another wonderful thing I got to experience at CFR was that work-life balance is possible in this industry. Casey and Lacey have a happy and healthy family dynamic that filled me with a hope I did not realize I needed. Despite living where they run their business, they value their time outside of work and consider impacts on time and energy when making decisions about the ranch. They are also a beautiful example of a happy and loving marriage between people who are also business partners. I’ve never seen a good example of this and, in fact, often hear that the opposite is true. Considering I hope to run and live on a farm or ranch with my own family one day, it was really good to see that this can be a reality for me as well. 

The multitude of ways this experience has changed me have left me feeling like I know what I want and I am ready for the future. Maybe that’s the biggest success of all. It’s so rare that I come to the end of a chapter in my life and actually feel prepared to take on what comes next. I want more responsibility. I want to settle down in one place and notice the subtleties of seasons passing, then years. I want to be around to see the fruits of my labor or impacts of my mistakes. What lies ahead is still full of unknowns, but I am confident that I am ready for the next step in my career. 

Brusett, Montana is a place I would have never heard of and never visited. Thanks to NAP, this will always be a special place for me. I will always think of my mentors as a pivotal part of my regenerative agriculture career.

How did you get interested in agriculture? And what are you hoping to gain from your apprenticeship?
May 2024

What first got me interested in agriculture was a course I took in college titled ‘World Agriculture,’ in which we learned about the enormous environmental impact of our industrial food system. I was shocked to become aware of the true costs of the food in the supermarket and even more astounded that this was not common knowledge. How had I not known that conventional agriculture was the leading contributor to global climate change? How did no one else know this? I went vegetarian within a week and within a month I had my mind set on pursuing a career in sustainable agriculture. My passion for improving our food system only grew as I began to work on farms and see that this career is both personally fulfilling and has the power to accomplish greater good for the planet, people, and animals. I eventually ended up working at a regenerative farm in SoCal that opened my eyes even further. I now understand the potential for intensive management of livestock to store carbon at a significant rate and greatly improve much of the damage done by conventional methods. I fell in love with working with animals as well and I started to eat meat from trusted sources again. Regenerative grazing seemed like the most impactful form of sustainable agriculture being practiced, so I gave it my full support.

The biggest thing I hope to gain from the NAP apprenticeship is an honest look at running a ranch as a business. A majority of my farming experience up to this point has been on operations that are funded by outside investors. On top of that, I’ve heard countless stories about farming being an endless amount of work and extremely stressful on individuals and families just to barely make it by financially. I know I love the work and I’m excited to deepen my ranch skills and stockmanship, but my main motivation is gaining an understanding of how people are able to make a living at this and support a family on ranch generated income. I want to know what major stresses are and what the work-life balance looks like. I need to know how decisions are made and if they still find joy in this work. I have a dream of what my own ranch business will look like one day and I need to know if it’s something I can really achieve. I need to figure out if this truly is the lifestyle that I want.

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