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

I didn’t grow up in a family that was very interested in agriculture, but it was all around us. I think my gateway into agriculture was a fierce obsession with horses by the time I was two. My love of horses evolved into a love of all animals when I attended a Monterssori style farm camp. I rode my whole life, but I always loved farms and being around animals. I thought I wanted to be a vet, so I went to college and realized that I am not cut out for science classes. I switched my major to Environmental Studies, and during a 101 class, we took a field trip to a dairy farm, where I spent the whole trip convincing my friends to pet the calves and try milking the cows. The owner offered me a job, and I ended up working as a calf feeder for three years. The disconnect between what I saw from the farmer I worked with and what we were learning in class really got me interested in learning more about how the agricultural system works in our world. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to live for a semester in Montespertoli, Italy, where we visited a multitude of farms while studying UN Ag policy and the history of Italian agriculture. After I graduated, I wanted to have one fun summer before I got my life together, so I ended up working on a guest ranch in Jackson Hole as a wrangler. One summer turned into 5, and I ended up managing the horse herd my last season. My experience in Wyoming brought me to love the mountain west, but made me very aware of how much I needed to learn about ranching!

I started thinking more about my future and had been having a strong urge to live in one place for longer than six months, so when I found the NAP Program I was overjoyed – here is an opportunity to build my skills and my knowledge from someone that cares about the planet and their animals! I have many hopes for my apprenticeship. I am hoping to grow my toolbox for my marketability, but also for my own personal life and my future home. I am hoping to grow my confidence in myself so I get less “start paralysis” when faced with new challenges (and I am already seeing that!) I hope to learn more about grass, vetting, stockmanship, horsemanship, how cattle drives work, challenges of rangeland grazing, and so much more. I want to be considerably more fluent in cattle (I am at the point when I can immediately feel that I messed up communicating with them but I would like to skip that step in the future). I’m looking forward to learning about the things I don’t even know exist yet! I am also hoping that I am always able to find the fun in daily tasks.

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